Ark Invest bought $77M in crypto stocks during June selloff

Ark Invest bought $44 million of Coinbase (COIN), $25.25 million of Circle (CRCL), and $8.2 million of Bullish (BLSH) during June, according to emailed disclosures from the firm. The purchases came as crypto stocks tumbled alongside Bitcoin, which recorded its worst month in four years. Bitcoin fell from around $70,000 to below $60,000 over the course of June, dragging down shares of companies tied to digital assets.

Coinbase ended the month down nearly 20% at $146.19. Circle, the issuer of stablecoin USDC, slumped 40% to $62.63. That decline included an 18% drop on June 30 after the launch of rival stablecoin Open USD, backed by a consortium that includes Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock. Bullish, the parent company of CoinDesk, fell 27% to $23.43.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based investment manager has a history of buying into weakness. The June purchases were spread across multiple days. Ark’s ETFs, including ARKK, hold significant crypto exposure. The $77 million total is a small fraction of Ark’s roughly $30 billion in assets under management.

Circle’s June slide was the steepest among the three. The launch of Open USD adds a new competitor to the stablecoin market, where Circle’s USDC trails Tether’s USDT by about $77 billion in market cap. Open USD’s backing by major payments and financial firms creates a direct challenge to USDC’s position.

AlphaScala’s proprietary scoring system rates Coinbase at 25 out of 100 and Circle at 28 out of 100, both in the Weak category. That reflects ongoing headwinds – regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. and Europe, a stronger dollar, and risk-off sentiment that pushed the total crypto market cap below $2 trillion in June.

Ark founder Cathie Wood has been a vocal advocate for crypto and blockchain technology, often calling Bitcoin a hedge against inflation. The firm did not provide further commentary beyond the purchase disclosures.