Marmite fund manager Cathie Wood has been on a Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) profit-taking spell of late, having dumped around US$26mln (£19.8mln) worth of shares, according to Morningstar analysis.
When looking at Coinbase’s recent performance, the strategy appears to be a sensible one.
Coinbase, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes and the only one listed on a major stock market, has been on an absolute rip in 2023.
Currently changing hands at US$105.55, its share price has more than tripled year to date, bringing Conbase to 15-month highs.
Despite the profit-taking, Coinbase remains the second-largest holding in Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), behind Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and in front of e-commerce platform Shopify and restaurant-management software group Square (NYSE:SQ).
Wood’s ARKK fund owns 4.16% of all of Coinbase’s shares for a market value of around US$818mln.
However, even with the recent rally, the cost average on ARKK’s existing Coinbase shares is more than US$254 per share, making for current realised losses in excess of one billion dollars.
Wood remains bullish on Coinbase’s prospects.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Monday, she pointed recent rulings made in the long-running securities dispute between Ripple Labs, the developer of US$40bn XRP cryptocurrency, and US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“We’re very positive on Coinbase, especially in light of the court ruling for Ripple and against the SEC,” she said, alluding to last week’s ruling that public XRP sales do not constitute securities contracts.
Even though the ruling was not absolute, and the dispute is expected to go to trial, Wood said it was, by and large, “very positive for exchanges”.