Cathie Wood of Ark Invest Dumps Coinbase Shares Amid SEC Probe

Cathie’s Ark is sinking. Can Ark Invest & Coinbase survive the crypto flood?

The third largest investor in Coinbase Global, Ark Invest, has sold off over 1.41 million shares, which were valued at $75 million on Tuesday morning. Furthermore, Ark Investment’s trademark Ark Innovation ETF also disposed of over 1.13 million shares. This comes just a day after The SEC launched a probe on Coinbase Global, claiming that the crypto platform engaged in illegal security trades.

The Shares Shrink 5 Times

With the SEC ramping up its crypto scrutiny, it’s logical that Coinbase Global’s stock would see a 20% plung overnight. At press time, Coinbase Global shares cost $52.93 apiece, just below the $53 price point at which Cathie Wood sold off over a million shares. Ultimately, this represents a monthly drop of 5% for Coinbase, seeing it record its lowest price ever.

The all-time low share price for Coinbase comes just days after news broke of the first-ever crypto insider case. The SEC has seemingly used the situation as a pretense to dig deeper into Coinbase’s trading activities, as the agency labeled 9 of the 25 cryptocurrencies involved in the case as “securities”. Unsurprisingly, the claim received firm denials from Coinbase execs & its legal team.

With Coinbase share prices nose-diving, the company has struck back at the SEC’s allegations. In response, the top American crypto platform has published a petition demanding that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launch a study into how digital assets should be traded, as “laws from the 1930s don’t work on crypto“.

A Game-Changing Case for Crypto

What’s more, the groundbreaking event of the first-ever crypto insider trading case, and now the SEC’s probe will definitely have an impact on crypto. With Coinbase officially requesting that the SEC provide a full legal framework, this could serve to “unlock a new market”. However, if the SEC were to gain the upper hand in the lawsuit, the 9 cryptos seen as “securities” by the SEC could lead to massive mass fines.

Interestingly, Coinbase still allows customers to trade in 7 of the 9 cryptocurrencies named in the lawsuit to this day. In relation to the matter, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said “we look forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter.” Coinbase’s lead attorney also highlighted in the blog post that the SEC had already revised and confirmed the digital assets listed on Coinbase before. “We don’t list securities” read Coinbase’s stance. To them, it’s as simple as that.

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This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Tadas Klimasevskis

Tadas Klimaševskis is a Lithuanian journalist at DailyCoin, specializing in covering the lighter side of the crypto industry such as memecoins and pop culture in the metaverse. He has experience as a music artist, English language teacher, and freelance writer, and uses his creative writing skills to summarize valuable information in his work. He is also a strong believer in the potential of blockchain and spends his free time listening to music, traveling, and watching basketball games.