An exchange-traded fund (ETF) managed by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has reportedly liquidated all of its holdings in crypto giant Grayscale’s flagship Bitcoin () trust product.
According to Bloomberg, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF unloaded its remaining 2.25 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) on Wednesday.
Wood’s fund also accumulated 4.32 million shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF for BTC futures exposure on the same day.
The development comes amid optimism that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will finally approve the first US spot Bitcoin ETF on January 10th.
The SEC previously rejected Grayscale’s bid to convert GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF, prompting the company to a lawsuit. In August, a federal judge that the securities watchdog should reconsider the application to avoid arbitrariness and inconsistency.
Citing a statement from Wood, Bloomberg reports that the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF completely disposed of its GBTC holdings “out of an abundance of caution” in case the SEC decides to deny the trust’s conversion to a spot market BTC ETF.
Says Wood,
“We don’t know exactly who’s going to be approved and whether they’ve met all the criteria that the SEC has put before us. We’re as optimistic about Bitcoin as we’ve ever been.”
Earlier this month, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein that the approval of a spot-based Bitcoin ETF would open the doors to investors in the $30 trillion advised market to get BTC exposure.
