The global asset manager has taken a surprising step by shuffling some of its assets under management.
Meanwhile, ether has been experiencing significant institutional demand, driven by the growing popularity of companies focusing on building ETH treasuries.
Restructuring of Assets
The CEO and founder of investment management firm ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, has shifted the company’s portfolios, selling various shares in favor of the ETH treasury company, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), helmed by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.
This purchase of Bitmine stock marks the first for ARK Invest since the firm’s shift from a Bitcoin to an Ethereum treasury entity.
Three funds managed by ARK — the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) — have cumulatively sold 218,986 shares of Coinbase (COIN) stock, valued at approximately $90.5 million. This is the third sale of Coinbase stock the company has undergone over the last month.
According to Monday’s trading update, 463,293 shares of the gaming firm Roblox (RBLX) were also removed from the portfolio, which were worth approximately $57.7 million.
The three funds acquired 4.4 million shares of BMNR, valued at approximately $174 million, which now comprise 1.5% of each of the individual ETFs.
A few other notable exchanges included in the update are Robinhood and Block Inc. stock converted to Bitmine, along with purchases of various company stocks, including AMD, DoorDash, Airbnb, and others.
Bitmine Immersion Tech, the company led by Tom Lee, is currently ranked number two in the world for Ether reserves, with over 300,000 ETH valued at around $1.1 billion at the time of printing, according to data from StrategicEthReserve. It trails only SharpLink Gaming, with 360.6K ETH.
Ethereum Stealing The Spotlight
Wood’s ARK is not the only company that has had a change of heart and started focusing on the world’s largest altcoin.
Bit Digital Inc., publicly traded on the NASDAQ (BTBT), is an ex-Bitcoin mining company that shifted to an Ethereum-native treasury after raising $172 million in public equity and selling the 280 BTC it had in its coffers. Later, the entity accumulated approximately 100,603 ETH.
SBET, as mentioned above, established its reserve by raising $425 million through a private placement deal and an additional $79 million via an at-the-market (ATM) equity offering.
