Article Author: Prathik Desai
Article Translation: Block Unicorn
Over the past few months, I have been tracking ARK Invest's daily trades in cryptocurrency companies. This American fund company manages assets issued through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and venture capital funds. Their buying and selling strategies reveal an interesting story about how they seize trading opportunities in what seems to be an extremely challenging industry.
One trade may be a coincidence, two may be intuition. ARK's cryptocurrency trades demonstrate an extraordinary sense of timing that is thoughtful rather than passive. This is evident by the over $265 million in profits they realized from trading shares of Coinbase and Circle in June and July.
If you look closely, you'll find that ARK has been shifting funds from exchanges and trading platforms to infrastructure, vaults, and token exposure.
Recent trades allow us to glimpse how this closely watched institutional investor optimizes returns for its retail cryptocurrency stakeholders by rapidly moving funds at the right moments. This is far more complex and nuanced compared to the rhetoric of 'diamond hands' in the cryptocurrency space.
Cathie Wood, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Invest
On June 5, 2025, Circle Internet Financial—the issuer of the largest regulated stablecoin USDC in the U.S.—went public on the New York Stock Exchange at a price of $69 per share. ARK, as a major investor, purchased 4.49 million shares through its multiple funds, valued at approximately $373 million.
On June 23, Circle's stock price peaked at $263.45 per share. This implies that the market values Circle at around $60 billion, roughly 100% of its assets under management at that time. This could be due to the market's optimistic outlook on the future of stablecoins, pricing Circle based on expected revenues ten times its current asset management scale. However, compared to the valuations of traditional asset management firms, this still seems overly high. In comparison, BlackRock manages $12.5 trillion in assets, with a market capitalization of only $180 billion, about 1.4% of its managed assets. This is a signal for ARK.
Daily trading documents show that as Circle's stock price premium expanded, ARK methodically sold Circle shares across its multiple funds.
Image Source: TradingView
ARK started selling a week before the stock price peaked. In total, ARK sold about 1.5 million shares, representing 33% of its total holdings, valued at approximately $333 million in Circle shares during the stock price surge. This means that in less than three weeks since Circle's Wall Street debut, ARK recorded over $200 million in paper profits on these shares, with a return rate of 160%.
ARK's interest in popular IPOs hasn't stopped there.
Last week, they purchased 60,000 shares on Figma's first day of trading. This San Francisco-based design software company disclosed in SEC filings that it holds a Bitcoin ETF worth $70 million and has been approved to purchase another $30 million.
Figma's stock surged over 200% on its first day of trading, closing at $115.50, a rise of 250%. The next day, Figma's stock climbed another 5.8%.
ARK's recent Coinbase trades provide us with more insight into its systematic profit-taking patterns.
As of April 30, 2025, ARK held 2.88 million shares of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. After that, until the end of July, ARK systematically took profits.
This period coincided with Bitcoin breaking $112,000 to set a new all-time high, while Coinbase's stock price also reached a historical high of over $440 per share. On July 1, ARK sold shares valued at $43.8 million. On July 21, the day Coinbase peaked, ARK sold shares worth $93.1 million across three funds. In total, ARK sold 528,779 shares between June 27 and July 31, representing about 20% of its total Coinbase holdings, valued at over $200 million, with an average selling price of $385 per share. In comparison, ARK Invest's weighted average cost for accumulating Coinbase shares over four years is about $260, meaning these trades generated profits exceeding $66 million.
In the past two months, Coinbase has lost its status as the top-weighted stock in ARK's fund portfolio.
After the market close on July 31, Coinbase reported disappointing second-quarter results. The next day, its stock price fell 17%, dropping from around $379 to $314. On August 1, the day of the stock price crash, ARK bought $30.7 million worth of Coinbase shares.
These trades are not isolated events. This is all part of ARK's strategic shift, moving funds from the overheated cryptocurrency exchange ecosystem to emerging sectors.
While selling its Coinbase shares, ARK also sold shares of its competitor Robinhood. These two divestments coincide with ARK shifting most of its funds toward BitMine Immersion Technologies (referred to as 'Ethereum's MicroStrategy'). BitMine, led by Wall Street veteran Tom Lee, is building an Ethereum vault with the goal of holding and staking 5% of the entire Ethereum.
On July 22, ARK invested $182 million in BitMine through a block trade. But they did not ignore it after a one-time purchase. ARK systematically bought into BitMine during each significant drop in its stock price, accumulating over $235 million worth of shares in just two weeks.
Image Source: TradingView
These trades indicate that ARK is shifting from cryptocurrency exchanges and payment companies to what is called cryptocurrency infrastructure. Coinbase and Robinhood profit when people trade cryptocurrencies, while BitMine profits by directly holding cryptocurrencies. This represents different ways to capture cryptocurrency adoption, but with different risk profiles.
Exchanges benefit from volatility and speculation. When cryptocurrency prices fluctuate dramatically, people trade more, and exchanges earn more. But this is cyclical. Vault companies like BitMine directly benefit from rising cryptocurrency prices. If Ethereum prices rise by 50%, the asset value of BitMine also increases by 50%. This does not depend on trading volume or user behavior. Even without significant capital appreciation, staking Ethereum on the network can generate stable income.
But the higher the returns, the greater the risks. Vault companies also face direct downside risks. When Ethereum prices drop, the asset value of BitMine will also decline accordingly. This makes vault strategies have a higher beta value.
ARK's trades reflect its belief that cryptocurrencies are maturing from a speculative trading market to one that resembles more permanent financial infrastructure. In such a world, holding underlying assets may be more valuable than the platforms where people trade those assets.
The interesting aspect of these trades is their timing precision. They sold at the peak of Circle's meteoric rise, just as the stock price reached its summit. They seized the opportunity of a 250% surge on Figma's first day of trading. They also sold at the peak of Coinbase and doubled their purchases after disappointing earnings reports caused the stock price to plummet. They bought into BitMine at multiple market lows.
Its methodology combines traditional value investing principles with precise timing. When Circle's trading price reaches 100% of its assets under management, its valuation may be high. When Coinbase dropped 17% in the day after its earnings report, it might indicate that its price is cheap. ARK also seems to trade based on predictable events—such as earnings releases, regulatory decisions, and market volatility.
There is a bigger question here: why are these stocks trading at a premium to their underlying assets? Circle's trading price once matched the total value of its managed assets. BitMine's trading price is several times that of its Ethereum holdings. The existence of these premiums is due to the fact that most investors cannot easily buy cryptocurrencies directly. Even if they could, the experience of entering and exiting trading platforms is not smooth for retail investors. If you want to invest in Ethereum through a pension fund, buying Ethereum is certainly not as easy as purchasing shares of a company that holds Ethereum.
This creates structural advantages for companies holding cryptocurrency assets. ARK's trades indicate they have a deep understanding of this dynamic. They buy when the premiums are reasonable and sell when the premiums become extreme.
ARK's strategy demonstrates that investing in cryptocurrency stocks is not simply about buying and holding, especially when you want to optimize returns. For anyone looking to follow ARK's cryptocurrency trades, it is not enough to just know what they are buying. You need to understand why they are buying, when they might sell, and the direction of their next positions.
Currently, ARK's cryptocurrency trades provide us with a useful window into how professional funds manage cryptocurrency exposure.
