ARK Invest Dumps 800K Shares of GBTC

ARK Invest, a contender for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., has recently offloaded a substantial portion of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holdings. The firm sold 809,441 GBTC shares from its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) on December 18,. With GBTC’s closing share price at $34.5, this sale amounts to approximately $27.9 million, according to TradingView data.

This divestment further decreases ARK’s investment in GBTC, which is now on the verge of falling out of ARKW’s top three holdings. As of December 18, GBTC still ranks as the third-largest holding in the ARKW portfolio, representing 6.84% of the total assets, valued at $117 billion. This positions GBTC just below Coinbase, which constitutes 11% of ARKW’s assets, and streaming company Roku, accounting for 8%.

Simultaneously, ARK has been increasing its stakes in Block, the financial payment processor co-founded by Twitter (now X) co-founder Jack Dorsey. On the same day as the GBTC sale, ARKW invested in an additional 347,692 Block shares, valued at around $25.7 million based on the closing price. This aggressive acquisition has seen Block’s stock nearing GBTC in ARKW’s top holdings, now comprising 6.83% of the total assets with a market value of $116.9 billion.

Block has been actively expanding its offerings, recently launching a self-custody Bitcoin wallet named Bitkey on December 7. Available as both a mobile app and hardware storage, Bitkey is accessible in over 95 countries and has partnered with prominent companies like Coinbase and Cash App for its global rollout.