Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, purchased approximately $16 million worth of shares in Coinbase and Robinhood on March 3rd. The buys came as both stocks traded at significant discounts from their 2025 highs. The moves coincided with strategic updates from both companies, including Robinhood’s expansion into wealth management and Ark’s projection on the future impact of AI agents on decentralized finance.
On March 3rd, Ark Invest added 22,452 shares of Coinbase Global across several of its ETFs. The purchase was valued at roughly $4.09 million based on the stock’s closing price of $182.36.
The firm also bought 158,587 shares of Robinhood, worth over $12 million. At the time, COIN was down 58% from its 2025 high, while HOOD had declined about 52%.
The investment in Robinhood aligned with the company unveiling its Robinhood Advisor Network. The firm stated this shift aims to create a “financial superapp” to drive greater financial access.
Coinbase is concurrently pursuing an “everything exchange” vision spanning custody and prediction markets. The exchange has also placed significant focus on the development of AI agents.
Ark Invest projects that AI agents could render many current human-focused DeFi applications obsolete. “If AI agents become the dominant economic actors, they may not need most of today’s DeFi apps,” the firm noted.
Beyond these two stocks, Ark maintains exposure to other crypto-linked firms like Circle and Block. The firm also holds direct cryptocurrency exposure through the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.
