ARK Bought $77M in Crypto Stocks as Volatility Rose

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchased roughly $77 million of crypto-related shares in June: about $44 million in Coinbase, $25.25 million in Circle and $8.2 million in Bullish, according to daily trade disclosures. The purchases came during one of Bitcoin’s worst months in four years. On June 25 the funds added 35,023 Robinhood shares worth about $3.27 million while opening or expanding positions as prices fell. Wood has linked these equity purchases to a long-term Bitcoin target and favors publicly traded, regulated exposure to the crypto cycle.

Price data through July 2 show elevated volatility across U.S.-listed crypto-linked stocks. Across nine names, 30-day annualized realized volatility ranged about 68% to 90%, versus Bitcoin’s 37.6% for the same period. On a 90-day basis, Circle’s realized volatility reached about 103.6% while Bitcoin’s 90-day figure was about 37.8%. Year-to-date drawdowns through early July were larger for several firms: Circle was about 51.4% below its 2026 high, MicroStrategy about 48.6% and Bullish about 43.6%, versus Bitcoin’s 36.4% pullback from its January peak.

Correlation and beta figures vary by company. Beta measures how much a stock moves for a 1% change in Bitcoin. Over the past 90 trading days MicroStrategy had a beta near 1.59 and a 90-day correlation with Bitcoin around 0.85. Coinbase’s beta was about 1.26 with a correlation near 0.75. Circle, Robinhood and Bullish posted correlations in the 0.55–0.58 range, indicating Bitcoin explained roughly one-third of their daily moves over that window.

Company-specific developments affected stock prices. Circle fell about 17.5% on June 30 after the debut of a rival stablecoin backed by multiple large payments firms; that decline was linked to competitive payments dynamics rather than Bitcoin price moves. Investors in listed crypto businesses face exposure to Bitcoin plus separate equity risks such as earnings results, competition, financing pressures and potential share issuance.

MicroStrategy’s metrics shifted in late June. The company’s multiple of net asset value, or mNAV, fell below 1 for the first time. MicroStrategy reported holding 847,363 BTC as of its June 22 disclosure. At the end of June the company’s market capitalization was about $29.54 billion, down from a 2024 peak above $71 billion. The company authorized a share buyback program and allowed up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales to support preferred dividends and interest costs. MicroStrategy sold 32 BTC on June 1, its first disclosed sale since 2022.

Miners produced different results. Through early July Riot, Marathon Digital and CleanSpark showed year-to-date gains of about 74.5%, 38.1% and 24.7% respectively, while Bitcoin was down roughly 29.5%. Those gains coincided with miners repurposing data-center capacity for AI and high-performance computing contracts and selling portions of their Bitcoin treasuries. The miners’ betas remain above one, so they still register moves with Bitcoin on individual trading days.

ARK’s June purchases accumulated shares at lower prices across several business models: MicroStrategy for leveraged Bitcoin exposure, Circle as a payments and stablecoin operator, Robinhood as a diversified brokerage with a crypto offering, and miners with non-crypto revenue streams. Each company’s stock returns reflected both Bitcoin price moves and company-specific factors.