Investment firm ARK is selling Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares amid a market surge fueled by anticipation of a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF).
On Oct. 23, ARK — headed by pro-Bitcoin (BTC) investment veteran Cathie Wood — sold 100,739 GBTC shares ($2.5 million) from its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), according to a trade notification seen by Cointelegraph.
The transaction comes as GBTC touched multimonth highs, reaching $24.7 for the first time since May 2022. According to data from TradingView, GBTC has surged more than 200% year-to-date and is up nearly 30% over the past 30 days.
The GBTC sale marks ARK’s first officially reported GBTC transaction since November 2022, when the firm added 450,272 GBTC shares worth $4.5 million to ARKW.
The latest GBTC sale amount accounts for about 2% of all GBTC value in ARKW’s portfolio, or $122.6 million as of Oct. 23. GBTC is the largest asset held by ARKW, accounting for 10.4% of the product’s exposure, with Coinbase and Roku’s shares following with 9% and 7.4%, respectively.
The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF’s top three holdings by weight. Source: ARK
According to Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow, ARK’s latest GBTC sale may be linked to the firm awaiting a decision from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its filing to list a Bitcoin-based ETF. Grayscale filed a new BTC ETF registration statement with the SEC on Oct. 19, a few days after ARK amended its spot Bitcoin ETF filing on Oct. 11.
“It makes sense for ARK to sell GBTC now as the discount is getting lower and they have their own ETF filing pending,” Mow told Cointelegraph.
Related: Grayscale files for new spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca
Some online traders have also speculated that if ARK is approved for a spot Bitcoin ETF, the firm would likely put its ETF as the first holding in ARKW and dump GBTC.
$ARKW is the largest owner of $GBTC by WEIGHT at 8.36%. So @JSeyff : If ARK is approved for a Spot Bitcoin ETF, they would likely put that ETF at the #1 holding in ARKW and dump GBTC. There is some obscure rule that if ARK sells GBTC, they have to pay out Capital Gains on it like… pic.twitter.com/LLv7lDa065
— Jay Dilks (@DilksJay) October 14, 2023
ARK did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Apart from selling GBTC, ARK also sold 32,158 Coinbase shares from ARKW and 10,455 Coinbase shares from its ARK Fintech Innovation fund for a total of $3.4 million. The investment firm has continued stacking Robinhood shares, adding 32,158 worth $300,000 to ARKW on Oct. 23.
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