ETF traffic at ARK. Investment company funds ARK Invest had quickly purchased the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), the first Bitcoin ETF future (based on futures contracts) after its approval in October 2021. But like all exchange-traded funds of this type, they are not based on real underlyings in bitcoins. Contrary to Bitcoin spot ETF (or spot) freshly approved over there Securities and Exchange Commission (DRY) this January 10, 2024. Thus, Cathie Woodthe CEO of ARK Invest, proceeds to a replacement BTC ETFs future of its funds by BTC ETFs spot.
Cathie Wood sells $31 million in shares of the old ETF future BTC of 2021…
The investment strategist Cathie Wood has bet (and still continues to bet) big on the crypto-asset sector. His funds are so full of stocks COIN from Coinbase and shares of Grayscale GBTC (at the lowest point of the crypto market, end of 2022) that they have to resell a little to balance the distribution of their assets.
Likewise, the investment fund Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) of ARK Invest had invested heavily in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFthe first Bitcoin futures ETF validated at the end of 2021 by the SEC.
In recent days, as CoinDesk reports in particular, Cathie Wood’s ARKW fund has sold for 15.8 then 15 million dollars of shares of the ProShares BITO ETF. A total of nearly $31 million in future Bitcoin ETF shares liquidated. But this is in no way because the director of ARK Invest has lost faith in the king of cryptos, quite the contrary.
…to better buy the same amount of the Bitcoin ETF in cash from ARK Invest!
L’ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) is one of the 11 Bitcoin spot exchange traded funds that were able to start their listing on the market places on January 11, following the green light from the SEC given the day before.
If ETF futures future are settled in dollars, the creation of shares of spot ETFs requires buying real bitcoins ringing and stumbling in underlying. Unsurprisingly, Cathie Wood prefers the latter for her investment funds. And as for doing even better, it might as well be the ETF of his own company !
Thus, the ARKW fund got rid of its investments in the ETF future BITO for better buy as much of ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ! These are like this 365,427 then 365,695 shares of the ARKB ETF which were acquired, i.e. the equivalent of 15.9 and 15 million dollars.
All of this could simply be seen as ARK Invest’s “internal soup”. But this replacement Bitcoin ETF future by spot yet clearly demonstrates a real desire of institutional investors to gain more direct exposure to the leader in cryptocurrencies.