Cathie Wood is doubling down on Robinhood. The famed ARK Invest CEO grabbed another 232,984 shares of the popular trading app this week, dropping about $30.7 million amid a significant stock plunge. Robinhood tanked over 9% on Thursday alone. Rough.
The buying spree happened across two of Wood’s flagship ETFs—ARKK and ARKW—over consecutive trading days. Thursday’s purchase totaled 124,427 shares worth $15.35 million, followed by Friday’s additional 108,557 shares valued at roughly $13.4 million. Wood clearly sees something others don’t right now.
These purchases came at an interesting time. Robinhood’s stock was getting hammered due to slower November trading activity, even as the company expanded its crypto offerings with new trading pairs and 7x leverage in Europe. The expansion includes new trading pairs for XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin specifically targeting European markets. Despite Bitcoin’s market dominance of approximately 62.7%, Robinhood continues to promote altcoin accessibility for traders seeking higher volatility opportunities. Bank of America still likes the stock, though they did trim their price target from $166 to $154. Still bullish, just less so.
Despite Robinhood’s stock slump from slow trading volumes, their crypto expansion tells a different story about long-term potential.
The moves strengthen ARK’s already substantial position in Robinhood. The stock now ranks as ARKK’s seventh-largest holding with a 4.4% weighting, valued at $351.6 million. Her impressive trading strategy has generated 345% gains on her Robinhood investment thus far, demonstrating her ability to time this volatile stock. Across all funds, ARK’s Robinhood stake is worth a cool $1.04 billion, representing 5.15% ownership of the company’s outstanding shares.
Not bad for an investment that started in Q3 2021. ARK’s up 279% on its Robinhood position that cost around $275 million initially. Wood’s been playing this one like a fiddle.
Interestingly, ARK was simultaneously dumping Tesla shares—87,993 worth $39.3 million—while loading up on Robinhood. They also bought shares of their own Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) while crypto markets wobbled.
The contrarian moves follow Wood’s typical playbook. Buy the dip. Find opportunity in pain. ARK’s strategy remains focused on disruptive innovation, with significant bets across fintech, including Block Inc. shares worth $6.2 million purchased alongside the Robinhood buys. Aggressive? Yes. But that’s classic Cathie.
