Today in crypto, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest capitalized on the crypto market downturn, buying shares in Coinbase, Circle and Bullish. BNY expanded its Circle collaboration via the bank’s digital asset custody platform, while Germany is leading crypto licensing adoption under the EU’s MiCA framework.
Cathie Wood’s ARK adds $43.5 million in crypto stocks amid market dip
Tech-focused asset manager ARK Invest has capitalized on the recent crypto market downturn, buying a combined $43.5 million worth of shares in crypto firms such as Coinbase and Circle over the past three trading days.
Data from ARK Invest shows the asset manager bought another 122,544 shares in Coinbase (COIN) worth about $18.6 million since Thursday, while adding another 169,777 shares in Circle (CRCL) worth roughly $12.9 million over the same time frame.
The firm also purchased nearly $5.2 million worth of shares in crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH) and added another $5.12 million in brokerage firm Robinhood (HOOD), which has pushed aggressively into the crypto tokenization space in recent months. It also bought $1.69 million worth of shares in crypto-friendly bank SoFi Technologies (SOFI) on Monday.
ARK’s purchases come as investors have turned bearish on these crypto-related stocks. CRCL, COIN and BLSH have fallen 27.6%, 16.9% and 26.3%, respectively, over the past month. During that time, Bitcoin (BTC) slipped to a near two-year low of $58,190 while confidence that the CLARITY Act will pass before the US midterm elections in November has faded.
Most of the newly purchased shares were added to the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), the firm’s flagship fund, followed by the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW).
BNY adds USDC minting and redemption to institutional custody platform
BNY has expanded its Digital Asset Custody platform to let institutional clients store, transfer, mint and redeem Circle’s USD Coin, making it the first stablecoin supported on the platform.
The new capabilities allow BNY clients to convert US dollars into USDC and redeem the stablecoin back into dollars directly through the bank while also storing and transferring USDC on its custody platform. BNY said it plans to expand the service to additional stablecoins and digital cash workflows over time.
The expansion builds on BNY’s existing role as the primary custodian of the assets backing USDC, extending its relationship with Circle beyond safeguarding reserve assets to include client-facing stablecoin services.
According to BNY, the custodian bank oversees $59.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration and serves more than 90% of Fortune 100 companies. USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, with more than $73.8 billion in circulation, according to DefiLlama data.
Germany leads MiCA crypto authorization race as Europe’s deadline looms
The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework is producing uneven crypto licensing across member states and European Economic Area (EEA) jurisdictions, with Germany leading approvals under the new regime that takes effect on Wednesday.
Data from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) interim register, compiled on Friday, shows Germany has 57 MiCA-authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), accounting for about 23% of the 244 total licenses issued.
France follows with 26 companies, or roughly 11% of all approvals, placing it alongside the Netherlands as the bloc’s second-largest hub for MiCA licensing.
The pattern suggests that although MiCA is designed to create a single European crypto market, implementation remains fragmented across national regulators ahead of the July 1 transitional deadline.
