ARK Invest bought shares of Coinbase and Circle for $17 million

Investment firm ARK Invest, managed by Cathie Wood, increased its positions in shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and stablecoin issuer Circle by approximately $17 million over two trading sessions. Simultaneously, the company reduced its stake in cryptocurrency exchange operator Bullish amid a decline in cryptocurrency stock prices.

According to daily trading reports and closing prices from Yahoo Finance, on Friday and Monday, ARK purchased 64,208 shares of Coinbase (COIN) for approximately $9 million and 110,551 shares of Circle (CRCL) for $8 million. The purchases were made through three ARK exchange-traded funds. These same funds sold 342,545 shares of Bullish (BLSH) for approximately $8 million.

On Monday, all three stocks closed lower. Coinbase fell by 3.98% to $137.83, Circle by 0.63% to $72.08, and Bullish by 5.7% to $22.54. On the same day, ARK purchased shares of Robinhood for approximately $646,000; the stock fell by 1.4% to $83.80, according to Yahoo Finance.

Circle's positions in ARK funds

As of Tuesday, Circle was among the top 5 assets in three ARK exchange-traded funds. Its share amounted to $270.3 million (4.6%) in ARKK, $71.4 million (4.4%) in ARKW, and $42.6 million (5.9%) in ARKF, according to ARK's portfolio disclosures.

The purchases of Coinbase and Circle occurred amid overall weakness in cryptocurrency stocks: on Monday, shares of cryptocurrency exchanges and companies related to digital assets traded in the red. Meanwhile, ARK was increasing positions in two of them and reducing in Bullish.