ARK Invest Sheds Nearly 700K GBTC Shares From Portfolio In One Month

Jimmy Aki
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Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has continued to reduce its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holdings. The technology-focused asset management firm has so far shed off 700,000 GBTC shares.

36,000 Plus Shares Jettisoned on Wednesday

According to a report by a self-described Ark Invest Daily account on X (formerly Twitter), Ark Invest sold 36,168 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares on Wednesday, November 22.

This recent round of sales has since seen the total overhaul of Ark Invest’s exposure to the GBTC landscape skyrocket to 697,786 shares sold over the course of a month.

Despite this latest round of sales, Ark Invest still holds GBTC shares worth $131.4 million, making it one of the highest holders of the institutional-grade Bitcoin trust fund.

The investment firm still has 9.2% of its portfolio exposed to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, making it the third-ranked after Coinbase and Roku, according to official ARKW data.

Ark Invest’s GBTC sales started in 2022 when it offloaded 450,272 GBTC shares during a severe crypto winter in the nascent industry.

This bearish climate followed the subsequent collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the fallout of major crypto-facing companies like Digital Currency Group (DCG), crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and several others.

Citing reasons behind its rationale, Ark Invest stated in a December 2022 report that question marks surrounding DCG and Grayscale were the catalysts in its sales.

This followed a public stand-off between leaders of the Gemini exchange, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and the DCG CEO Barry Silbert.

Over the past several months, Ark Invest has continued to shave off its exposure to GBTC and sold 100,739 shares worth roughly $2.5 million on October 23, 2023.

This sale was made from its Ark Next Generation Internet exchange-traded fund (ETF) or ARKW.

Ark Invest ETF Seeing Exponential Growth

In the last three months, the crypto space has stirred back to life following growing interest from several legacy-backed institutions in offering an ETF.

Bitcoin has since climbed above the $35,000 threshold after spending more than the first half of 2023 battling a mega $30,000 price resistance.

This astronomic change in fortune has elevated the crypto market to $1.42 trillion, intrinsically boosting investor’s confidence in its continued growth.

So far, BlackRock, Valkyrie, and several others have filed multiple spot ETFs for Bitcoin and the Ethereum digital asset. Ark Invest has also joined this trend.

On November 20, the investment firm, led by the veteran investor Cathie Wood, filed an amended prospectus for its Bitcoin spot ETF with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In it, Ark Invest stated that it would be offering the product alongside fellow European digital asset management firm 21Shares, with Coinbase exchange serving as its key asset custodian.

Hence, the ongoing reduction of Ark Invest’s GBTC shares might be a strategic move, considering Grayscale’s plans to introduce a similar product to the US market.

The race for a Bitcoin spot ETF approval is becoming heated, and market analysts are forecasting a likely greenlight from the SEC in the coming weeks.

According to Bloomberg’s ETF analyst James Seyffart, the approval level has since skyrocketed to 90%, with January 2024 being a likely timeline for the needed regulatory nod.

Meanwhile, a crypto trader on X has said the recent $4.3 billion fine against the world’s largest exchange, Binance, could further increase the approval odds.

About Jimmy Aki PRO INVESTOR

Based in the UK, Jimmy is an economic researcher with outstanding hands-on and heads-on experience in Macroeconomic finance analysis, forecasting and planning. He has honed his skills having worked cross-continental as a finance analyst, which gives him inter-cultural experience. He currently has a strong passion for regulation and macroeconomic trends as it allows him peek under the global bonnet to see how the world works.