ARK Invest adds $15.6M to BitMine, total holdings top $300M

Cathie Wood’s investment firm ARK snapped up another $15.6 million in Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) shares, raising its cumulative holding to over $300 million.

ARK Invest distributed its Wednesday purchases across three funds. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) led with 227,569 shares, followed by 70,991 shares in the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and 40,553 shares in the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). Altogether, the firm acquired 339,113 shares of cryptocurrency.

Ark Invest started buying BitMine’s shares in 2021

BitMine’s shares have largely stayed steady throughout this month, despite Ether surging from about $3,900 on August 8 to almost $4,600, just below its all-time high. According to traders, Ark’s recent purchase shows continued interest in Ethereum-related companies among institutions.

Overall, it’s been a busy week for the firm’s funds. In addition to building out the long position in BitMine, the company raised its AMD position 91% while shrinking its Palantir holding by 36%, part of a risk-mitigation rotation into new exposures.

The American investment management firm has also put money in other crypto-related stocks, buying $21.2 million of Bullish and $16.2 million of Robinhood Markets last week. As of Wednesday, its Robinhood stakes totaled about $543 million across its funds.

Robinhood has become one of the company’s most consistent crypto-adjacent holdings, with last week’s purchase marking the third straight trading day the firm added to its position, following $14 million in buys and $9 million.

Earlier this month, it also purchased additional shares of Block worth $19.2 million after reducing its position. The firm typically does the opposite of a typical revving up and paring back when a stock falls and rises, maintaining its ETFs near target allocations.

Furthermore, the Jack Dorsey-headed company had reported strong earnings for the second quarter, enjoying a gross profit of $2.54 billion— a 14% upswing from last year. Last week, according to its earnings report, the company lifted its full-year forecast for gross profit to $10.17 billion, from an earlier view of $9.96 billion.

Block, previously Square, is a financial technology company with several crypto-centric business lines. Its quarterly filings show the firm holds Bitcoin reserves for investment and to enable Bitcoin transactions for its users, with a total stock of 8,692 BTC held as of the end of June.

BitMine’s shares declined by over 7% on Wednesday

Shares of BitMine fell almost 8% during Wednesday’s session, ending at $46.03, and dropped an additional 2.22% after hours to $45.01, per Google Finance.

Despite the recent pullback, BitMine is still soaring, up 490% year-to-date. In the quarter ending May, revenue rose 67.5% to $2.05 million, and net profit margin climbed 43% compared to the same period last year. Moreover, BitMine boosted its Ethereum holdings over the past week by $2.2 billion, including 190,000 ETH worth $873 million, bringing total assets to $8.8 billion. 

With more BMNR in its portfolio, ARK indirectly increases its ETH exposure. It uses companies whose operations or reserves are linked to cryptocurrency, combining growth-focused investing with crypto-related opportunities.

In the past few months, managers have expanded their ETH positions through both direct token holdings and investments in crypto-native businesses. ARK’s strategy is notably gradual: the BMNR purchases in July and August illustrate a stepwise buildup, documented in daily and periodic filings.

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