Cathie Wood's ARK Invest bought roughly $15.2 million worth of Coinbase stock on Friday, just days after offloading more than $39 million in shares across the same set of ETFs.
The purchase coincided with a 16.4% single-day surge in Coinbase shares to $164.32 - but ARK's net position in the exchange is still smaller than it was two weeks ago.
ARK acquired 92,854 Coinbase shares spread across three funds: 66,545 through ARKK, 16,832 through ARKW, and 9,477 through ARKF, according to the firm's daily trade disclosures.
The Selling That Preceded It
ARK sold about $17.4 million in Coinbase stock on Feb. 5 - its first Coinbase reduction of 2026 and the first since August 2025.
The following day, the firm sold another roughly $22 million worth, bringing total disposals to about $39.4 million in 48 hours.
At the same time, ARK increased its position in Bullish, a rival digital-asset exchange, buying about $17.8 million in shares on Feb. 5 alone. So the buy-sell pattern looks less like a dramatic reversal and more like routine rebalancing within ARK's actively managed portfolio.
Even after Friday's bounce, Coinbase shares are still down more than 26% year-to-date.
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Coinbase's Complicated Quarter
The stock activity follows Coinbase's fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday, which showed a GAAP net loss of $667 million - its first unprofitable quarter since Q3 2023.
Earnings per share of $0.66 missed analyst estimates of $0.92, and net revenue fell 21.5% year-over-year to $1.78 billion.
Transaction revenue dropped nearly 37% to $982.7 million as trading volumes contracted.
Subscription and services revenue was a relative bright spot, up more than 13% to $727.4 million, though the company expects that to decline to $550–$630 million in the first quarter.
What the Loss Actually Reflects
The $667 million headline loss deserves some context. According to CFO Aleshia Haas on the earnings call, it was driven primarily by $718 million in unrealized markdowns on Coinbase's own cryptocurrency holdings and $395 million in losses on strategic investments, including its stake in Circle (USDC).
On an adjusted basis, the company remained profitable: adjusted EBITDA was $566 million and adjusted net income was $178 million.
Coinbase ended 2025 with $11.3 billion in cash. Full-year revenue rose 9.4% to $6.88 billion. But with bitcoin down about 26% year-to-date and the company's stock tracking those losses, the near-term outlook depends on whether trading volumes recover.
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