Cathie Wood recently disclosed that she bought $100,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) when the price was approximately $250 years ago. The popular cryptocurrency’s quoted unit price indicates that Wood probably made the transaction in 2015.
The CEO of ARK Investments admitted during an interview on Peter McCormack’s podcast “What Bitcoin Did” that she has not sold any of that first investment. This means that she has made a profit of about $7.6 million on the $100,000 stake as of this writing.
According to Cathie Wood, she studied the Satoshi white paper before buying Bitcoin. She clarified that while she was able to place that personal wager on Bitcoin, she was unable to do the same with the actual ARK funds. This is due to the company’s restrictions, which only permit investing in securities.
But later, ARK obtained Bitcoin exposure through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Currently, about 5.9 million shares of GBTC are held by the ARK Next Generation Internet Fund (ARKW). Additionally, the market value of the aforementioned shares is roughly $67.4 million. According to the initiative’s official website:
“an actively managed Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that seeks long-term growth of capital by investing under normal circumstances primarily (at least 80% of its assets) in domestic and US exchange-traded foreign equity securities of companies that are relevant to the Fund’s investment theme of next generation internet.”
Wood Still Bullish On Bitcoin
BTC has gone through a number of tumultuous periods this year, but Wood remains optimistic about the top cryptocurrency. Additionally, given that it might soon receive approval to convert into a spot exchange-traded fund, the ARK CEO believes that the Grayscale Trust is trading at a “fire sale” price. Regulators must still approve the Trust, which is currently being sold at about a 35% discount to net asset value, for this speculation to proceed.
At the time of publication, BTC is trading just above $19K. In addition, the most popular cryptocurrency is currently almost 60% below its November 2018 record high of $69K.
ARK to Provide Crypto Strategies to Investment Advisers
In other news, it was recently claimed that ARK would soon begin supplying investment advisors with cryptocurrency ideas. Additionally, it was reported that a partnership with the digital asset platform Eaglebrook would enable this growth.
For some time now, ARK has been investing in securities and crypto equities. The company hopes to reach another milestone by making its two actively-managed crypto strategies available to registered investment advisors. It has plans to offer more services besides exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Pursuant to ARK’s collaboration with Eaglebrook, the strategies would be accessible as Separately Managed Accounts. Speaking further about the situation at the time, Wood stated:
“The strategies will be separately managed accounts (SMAs) designed to meet the needs of financial advisors, wealth managers, and their clients by offering direct ownership, low minimums, and portfolio reporting integration among other benefits.”
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