When the crypto market is bleeding red and everyone’s panicking, what does Cathie Wood do? She goes shopping, obviously.
ARK Invest just dropped a cool $59 million on crypto stocks during one of those “everything is on fire” market days. And honestly? It’s peak Cathie Wood behavior – the woman who made “buy the dip” an art form.
Here’s what went down on December 15th: While crypto-related stocks were getting absolutely hammered, Wood’s team was basically playing financial Pac-Man, gobbling up shares like they were going out of style.
The Shopping List That Made Headlines
Let’s break down Wood’s crypto stock haul:
- Coinbase (COIN): $16.3 million (while it dropped 6%)
- Bitmine (BMNR): $17 million (down 11% that day)
- Circle (CRCL): $10.8 million (fell nearly 10%)
- CoreWeave (CRWV): $9.9 million (slid 8%)
- Bullish (BLSH): $5.2 million (continuing its multi-day slide)
Now, before you think this was just a random Tuesday splurge, crypto stocks make up over $1.5 billion of ARK’s $6.7 billion portfolio. That’s roughly 22% – not exactly pocket change.
The Good, The Bad, and The Risky
Here’s where it gets interesting. Some of these picks actually make sense. Coinbase, for instance, just reported a 55% revenue jump to $1.9 billion, with net income shooting up fivefold. Not too shabby for a company everyone loves to hate.
But then there’s CoreWeave – the AI infrastructure play that’s been on a wild ride. Sure, their revenue more than doubled to $1.36 billion, but they’re also sitting on over $14 billion in debt. That’s like buying a Ferrari with 17 credit cards. It might work out, but it’s definitely not boring.
The Bigger Picture
Wood’s contrarian approach isn’t new, but it’s gotten more expensive over time. ARK’s assets under management have shrunk from a peak of $59 billion in early 2021 to just $7.7 billion today. That’s what happens when your “disruptive innovation” thesis meets reality’s reality check.
The firm has faced criticism for concentrating too heavily on a small number of stocks and, let’s be honest, some questionable timing. Remember when they sold Nvidia right before the AI boom? Yeah, that aged about as well as milk in the sun.
The Verdict
Is Wood’s latest crypto shopping spree genius or madness? Probably a bit of both. Buying quality companies when they’re beaten down has historically been a solid strategy. The trick is knowing which beaten-down companies are actually quality and which are just… beaten down.
With crypto markets being more volatile than a caffeinated day trader, Wood’s bet could either look brilliant in six months or become another cautionary tale about catching falling knives.
Either way, you’ve got to admire the conviction. While everyone else is running for the exits, Cathie Wood is backing up the truck. Whether that truck drives off into the sunset or straight into a wall remains to be seen.