ARK Invest buys Coinbase shares the same day SEC serves lawsuit

The same day cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was served with a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ARK Invest added more stock to its Coinbase holdings. 

According to investor notification from ARK Invest on June 6, the firm added approximately 419,324 shares of Coinbase Global Inc., which totals to a worth of nearly $21.6 million at the time of closing on the same day.

This came as Coinbase stock plummeted more than 20% on June 6, following the ongoing action involving the SEC and the recent lawsuit announcement. At the time of writing Coinbase’s stock price hovers around $53.11.

The addition of Coinbase stocks to the ARK Invest portfolio follows a trend. About a month prior, on May 2, ARK Invest added an additional 168,869 Coinbase shares, which then equaled around $8.5 million. The firm made investments in March and April as well, of 2.4 million shares for about $117 million and 304,300 shares worth $17.5 million, respectively.

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The recent lawsuit from the SEC against Coinbase accuses the exchange of offering unregistered securities and that it never registered as a broker, national securities exchange or clearing agency.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to Twitter in response and said his team is “confident in our facts and the law.” He continued to say that he welcomes the opportunity “to finally get some clarity around crypto rules” in court.

The chief legal officer for Coinbase Paul Grewal, told the U.S. Congress on June 6 that the company has “embraced regulation” since it was founded and that in 2022 alone it met with the SEC 30 times for regulatory guidance.

On June 6th, Coinbase was also issued a Show Cause Order from a task force of state security regulators in states including Alabama, California, Illinois and Vermont, among others. It alleged that the exchange’s offering of its staking rewards program is in violation of the securities law.

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