Tumble in Coinbase pushes Woods ARK fund closer to pandemic low

By David Randall

NEW YORK Reuters – A collapse in cryptocurrency company Coinbase Global Inc pushed star stock picker Cathie Woods ARK Innovation ETF down nearly 8 on Wednesday, putting it within 10 of its low touched in March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Coinbase, the funds secondlargest holding at nearly 7 of assets, fell more than 28 to record lows Wednesday after the company missed firstquarter estimates and its chief executive said the company had no risk of bankruptcy.

The declines in Coinbase added to the pain for Woods ARK Innovation fund this year.

ARK did not respond to a request for comment.

The fund outperformed all other actively managed U.S. equities in 2020 on the strength of its portfolio of companies such as Zoom Video Communications Inc and Teladoc Health Inc that rallied during the pandemicinduced economic lockdowns.

That strong performance made Wood a household name and led to appearances on magazine covers and billions of dollars in inflows from retail investors, though some now consider her the poster child for the socalled pandemic bubble.

ARK is down nearly 60 for the year to date, and nearly 76 below its high in February 2021. It traded at 37.98 at midafternoon, 8.6 above its low of 34.69 hit in March 2020 before the Federal Reserve and Congress unleashed an unprecedented 5.2 trillion to support the economy.

In a webinar Tuesday, Wood blamed much of the funds losses on the Fed taking a tooaggressive path of rate hikes at a time when the global economy is in what she believes is a recession.

But other investors disagree. Matthew Tuttle, whose 460 million Tuttle Capital Short Innovation Fund shorts ARK‘s portfolio, blamed Wood’s losses on “multiple compression.”

“These companies make no money, in a zero interest rate environment they can, and do, command high multiples but in a rising rate environment they dont,” he said.