Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood’s ARK cuts back holdings in top trust

Data shows a 700,000-share sale in Bitcoin Trust since Oct. 23.

While Cathie Wood has been touting her bullish stance on Bitcoin in recent months, her firm ARK Investment Management actually cut holdings in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Ark Next Generation Internet ETF has sold more than 700,000 shares of Bitcoin Trust since Oct. 23, according to the ETF provider’s daily trading data compiled by Bloomberg. It offloaded 36,168 shares on Wednesday. Bitcoin Trust enables investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin in the form of security.

The sales have taken place even as Bitcoin rose to its highest level since May 2022 earlier this month, rallying despite the uncertainty caused by policymakers taking action against crypto founders Changpeng “CZ” Zhao of Binance Holdings Ltd. and Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX. The cryptocurrency has more than doubled this year.

Ark’s officials didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s e-mailed queries. US markets were closed for a Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

Wood touted Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as her top pick at the Sohn Australia conference at the Sydney Opera House on Friday, according to the Australian Financial Review. Ark was the fourth largest holder of the trust with 5.6 million units as of Sept. 30, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The daily trading updates from Ark show only active decisions by the management team and do not include creation or redemption activity caused by investor flows. Ark’s internet ETF is up 65% for the year compared with a 46% advance in the Nasdaq 100 Index.