Cathie Wood’s Ark Launches Private Crypto Fund, Raises $16.3 Million – New Bull Market Imminent?

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment has raised more than $16 million for two new private crypto funds as digital assets resume rally despite increasing regulatory pressure.

According to recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Ark Invest has raised $16.3 million for a crypto fund split between a domestic and a Cayman Islands-based version.

The ARK Crypto Revolutions U.S. Fund LLC raised $7,281,630 from nine investors, while the ARK Crypto Revolutions Cayman Fund LLC raised almost $9 million from one backer. The filings show both funds opened for investments starting this month. 

For the overall target, Ark checked “Indefinite,” meaning the fund is open-ended. These two new funds are private and open only to a small number of investors.

It is worth noting that Ark Invest has been bullish on crypto firms despite the recent crypto meltdown and increasing regulatory scrutiny. Specifically, the fund has been interested in shares of major US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. 

Just last week, Cathie Wood added 301,437 shares of Coinbase to its ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and 52,525 shares to its Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). In total, the company spent $20.6 million for more than 350,000 shares. 

The move came after the fund had purchased 333,637 shares in January. With this latest purchase, Ark owns 9.9 million Coinbase shares, or around 3.8% of the company’s stocks. 

Cathie Wood Expects Bitcoin to hit $500,000 by 2030

In 2020, Wood made headlines with an infamous prediction that Bitcoin would hit $500,000 by 2030. Despite the recent crypto downturn that saw some high-profile digital asset companies collapse, the investor still stands by her prediction. 

Back in February, Wood reiterated that she expects Bitcoin to hit $500,000. “Yes, we’re a little higher than that in our bearish case for 2030,” she said, noting that her bullish case is much higher.

Earlier this month, she also praised Bitcoin for being the most decentralized and transparent blockchain in the crypto space. She also made comparisons with the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and said there are obvious reasons why he preferred other blockchains over Bitcoin.

“Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t like bitcoin. Why didn’t he like it? Because it’s completely decentralized, transparent, he couldn’t control it,” Wood said in the interview.

She claimed that the firms that went under during the crypto market downturn last year, including FTX, crypto lender Celsius, and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) were all “completely opaque and centralized.”

“The blockchains, whether you talk about Bitcoin or Ethereum and many others, they didn’t skip a beat. Transactions did not stop. And I think that has given us a lot of confidence that actually they are on the right track.”