ARK Invest, a crypto-friendly asset management firm in the United States, continues to sell its shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) despite having applied for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The company has been drawing attention with its sales of GBTC and <a href="https://en.bitcoinhaber.net/robinhood-ceo-discusses-the-impact-of-cryptocurrency-trading-volume-surge-on-market-and-company”>Coinbase shares, particularly during the recent surge in the cryptocurrency market.
According to a transaction notification shared by the company, on December 18th, ARK Invest sold 809,441 GBTC shares from its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). The sale, valued at $27.9 million, was based on a share price of $34.5 as per TradingView data.
This latest divestment by ARK Invest further reduces the fund’s weight in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, and GBTC is nearing its exit from the top three holdings of the ARKW fund. As of December 18th, GBTC still ranks third among the largest assets in the ARKW portfolio, constituting 6.84% of the total assets with a market value of $117 billion, trailing behind Coinbase and Roku.
While offloading GBTC shares, ARK Invest has been accumulating shares of Block, the financial payment processor founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. On December 18th, the ARKW fund allocated an additional 347,692 Block shares worth $25.7 million based on the closing share price.
Amidst these acquisitions, Block shares are approaching the position of GBTC in the top four list, reaching 6.83% of the total assets in the ARKW fund with a market value of $116.9 billion. On December 7th, Block launched Bitkey, a Bitcoin-focused cold wallet product available in over 95 countries, with notable global partners including Coinbase and Cash App.