Investment firm ARK is selling shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) as expectations for a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) drive the market higher.
On October 23, ARK, led by pro-Bitcoin (BTC) investing veteran Cathie Wood, sold 100,739 GBTC shares ($2.5 million) in its ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), according to transaction notifications seen by Cointelegraph.
The trade came as GBTC hit multi-month highs, reaching $24.7 for the first time since May 2022. according to GBTC has surged more than 200% year to date and is up nearly 30% in the past 30 days, according to TradingView.
This GBTC sale marks ARK’s first officially reported GBTC transaction since November 2022, when the firm increased its holdings to ARKW by 450,272 GBTC shares worth $4.5 million.
The latest GBTC sales represent approximately 2% of the total value of GBTC in ARKW’s portfolio, which was $122.6 million as of October 23. GBTC is ARKW’s largest asset holding, accounting for 10.4% of the product’s exposure, followed by Coinbase and Roku holdings of 9% and 7.4% respectively.
Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow said ARK’s latest GBTC sale may be related to the company’s pending decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on its application to list a Bitcoin-based ETF. On October 19, Grayscale submitted a new BTC ETF registration statement to the SEC, days after ARK revised its spot Bitcoin ETF filing on October 11.
Mow told Cointelegraph: “It makes sense for ARK to sell GBTC now as the discount is getting lower and their own ETF application is pending.”
related: Grayscale files for new spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca
Some online traders also speculated that if ARK is approved to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, the company may use its ETF as the first holding of ARKW and sell GBTC.
$ARKW is the largest owner $GBTC 8.36% by weight.so @JSeyff : If ARK is approved for a spot Bitcoin ETF, they will likely put that ETF into the top position of ARKW and dump GBTC. There are some vague rules, if ARK sells GBTC, they have to pay capital gains, like… pic.twitter.com/LLv7lDa065
— Jay Dilks (@DilksJay) October 14, 2023
ARK did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
In addition to selling GBTC, ARK also sold 32,158 Coinbase shares of ARKW and 10,455 Coinbase shares of the ARK Fintech Innovation Fund for a total price of $3.4 million. The investment firm continued to increase its holdings of Robinhood shares, adding 32,158 shares to ARKW on October 23, worth $300,000.
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