Ark Invest, Cathie Wood raises $16m for new crypto fund: why most investors won’t be able to participate

Over the years, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood has been a vocal supporter of the cryptocurrency sector. Ark Invest has included several crypto-friendly companies among large ETF holdings.

The company is rolling out new crypto investment funds, but they may not be readily available to everyone.

What happened: Wood has one of the most aggressive course targets on Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), with the fund manager and the Ark Invest team posting price estimates of $500,000 to $1 million over the coming years for the leading cryptocurrency.

New filings show that the Ark Crypto Revolutions Fund just raised $16 million. The fund is registered in the USA and the Cayman Islands. The US version of the fund recorded $7.28 million since it started raising money. The Cayman Islands fund has raised $8.99 million since March 1st.

Unlike many of the popular Ark Funds ETFs, the Crypto Revolutions Fund is a directed investment and not available to public investors.

Both fund documents list a minimum investment for outside investors of $500,000, which means that many investors will not qualify for the funds. The funds have also ticked the “indefinite” box, suggesting they are open to continued investment from those with deep enough pockets.

Related Link: How to Buy Bitcoin

Why it’s important: Wood has been incredibly vocal in support of cryptocurrency and recently spoke out against regulators in the wake of the failure of several banks.

“While the US banking system seized in response to bank runs that threatened regional banks, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other crypto networks did not skip a beat,” Wood said.

“Instability in the banking system threatened stablecoins, the on-ramps of DeFi, in stark contrast to the regulator’s rhetoric.”

The Ark website features several stories about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

“Ark believes cryptocurrencies governed by open source networks enable a new paradigm for monetary systems and mechanisms for storing and transferring value. The investment manager believes cryptocurrency value and market share dynamics will be ‘power-law distributed,'” the Ark website states.

The flagship Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK) is a large owner in shares of Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN). The share is the fourth largest holding with 6.5% of the assets under management.

The Ark Innovation ETF also owns shares in crypto-friendly companies Block Inc (NYSE:SQ) and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD), which are the 6th and 18th largest holdings in the ETF, respectively.

The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE:ARKW) counts Coinbase as the largest shareholder with 8.3% of assets under management. The ETF has Block and Robinhood as the third and 13th largest weightings in the ETF, respectively.

The ETF also owns shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC) as the seventh largest holding with 6.2% of assets. The ETF also owns shares in crypto-friendly Latin American digital bank Now Holdings (NYSE:NU) at 0.5% of assets.

The Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKF) also has Coinbase as its largest holding at 12.1% of assets. Other holdings include Block, Robinhood and Nu Holdings at 10.1%, 4.7% and 1.6% of assets held respectively.

Ark has aggressively added shares in Coinbase in 2023. Ark now owns 5.1% of the cryptocurrency platform.

Read next: Cathie Wood invested in Musk’s Twitter takeover, how to get a $500 bet

Composite image via Benzinga and Shutterstock.