Cathie Wood made another surprising move, taking advantage of eToro's first day of listing to make large purchases. At the same time, she adjusted her ETF portfolio, liquidated some Bitcoin holdings, and quietly increased her holdings of Solana products and withdrew her Block holdings.
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ToggleeToro surged 29% on its first day of listing, and Ark grabbed more than $9 million
Ark Invest’s Innovative Finance ETF (ARKF) bought 140,000 shares of eToro worth a total of $9.4 million on Wednesday, the day the crypto and stock trading platform officially debuted on the Nasdaq. eToro uses "ETOR" as its stock code. After the IPO was priced at US$52 per share, the stock price rose 29% on the day of listing and closed at US$67, demonstrating strong market demand from investors.
eToro originally submitted an IPO application in March, but the plan was temporarily suspended due to market volatility caused by former US President Trump's tariff policy. As market sentiment has stabilized this year, many crypto-related companies, including Circle and Animoca Brands, are gearing up for listing.
This is not the first time Ark has made a move on the first day of its IPO. In April 2021, Ark bought 750,000 shares on the day of Coinbase's listing.
Ark liquidates $7.9 million of Bitcoin ETF positions to maintain portfolio balance
While rushing into eToro, Ark also liquidated its Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) positions with a total value of US$7.9 million, which came from two products, ARKF and Next Generation Network Fund (ARKW). However, even with this liquidation, ARKB is still the largest holding of ARKW, with a 9.5% stake, worth about $165 million, and the fourth largest holding in ARKF, with a 6.1% stake, worth about $62 million.
This adjustment is in line with Ark's consistent investment philosophy - no single asset should exceed 10% of the overall ETF portfolio to ensure asset allocation diversity and risk control.
eToro’s share in Ark is not high initially, but the potential is promising
According to the latest public information, ETOR currently ranks 33rd in ARKW, accounting for only 0.93%. In comparison, the top three holdings in ARKW are Shopify (9.9%), Coinbase (9.7%), and Robinhood (7.4%), with market caps of $100 million, $94 million, and $74 million, respectively.
Although ETOR currently accounts for a small proportion, if the stock price continues to rise in the future, Ark is expected to conduct rebalancing operations and adjust its proportion in the fund.
Ark simultaneously bets on Solana and increases its holdings in Canada-listed staking ETFs
It is worth noting that in addition to eToro, Ark also bought the Solana staking ETF issued by 3IQ and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with a total amount of US$7.6 million, which was allocated to ARKF and ARKW respectively, accounting for approximately 1% and 0.6%, with a market value of US$10.3 million and US$10.6 million respectively.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet approved any Solana ETF, but several companies including Bitwise, 21Shares, Grayscale and VanEck have recently submitted applications. This move by Ark shows that it is optimistic about Solana's future opportunities in the ETF market.
Clearing Block shares, funds flow to high-growth targets
Ark also sold approximately 14,930 shares of Jack Dorsey's payment company Block (formerly Square), with a market value of approximately US$873,000. Block's stock price rose 0.6% on the day, closing at $58.50. This reduction in holdings shows that Ark is further optimizing its investment portfolio and focusing funds on newly listed targets or those with greater growth potential.
Risk Warning
Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk, their prices may fluctuate dramatically, and you may lose all your investment. Please assess the risks carefully.
The monthly report released by the well-known exchange Coinbase on May 14 pointed out that as the US fiscal and trade deficits worsen and the global voices for de-dollarization intensify, Bitcoin, an asset that is "not restricted by sovereignty and can be self-custodied," is becoming mainstream and is expected to become a new option for the international reserve system. Coinbase even estimates that if countries around the world convert 10% of their foreign exchange reserves into Bitcoin, the overall market value will have a chance to reach $1.2 trillion.
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ToggleThe risk of twin deficits in the United States increases, and the safe-haven status of the US dollar is questioned
The report points out that over the past half century, the operation of the U.S. economy has relied on central bank independence and stable inflation targets. but:
- Since the 2008 financial tsunami and the COVID-19 epidemic, massive fiscal stimulus has led to a surge in U.S. debt.
- U.S. debt has skyrocketed from 63% of GDP in 2008 to 122% in 2025.
- After the Federal Reserve raised interest rates sharply from 2022 to 2023, the government's borrowing costs were high, and the US interest expenses became difficult to ignore. This also led to the rise of trade protectionism, and the safe-haven status of the US dollar was questioned.
As can be seen in the figure, by 2025:
"The U.S. fiscal deficit has expanded to nearly -15% of GDP, while the trade deficit has deteriorated to -$140 billion per month, with both deficits hitting record lows. This shows that the U.S. continues to incur debt domestically and has a serious trade surplus with foreign countries, putting the dollar's safe-haven status under unprecedented pressure."
Non-US institutions around the world hold more than $33 trillion in assets, but do not hedge
Of particular note are global non-US institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign funds:
"Over the years, they have been holding more than $33 trillion in U.S. dollar assets, but they have not done any special hedging."
Assuming there is a reversal of confidence in the future, it may trigger a large-scale asset reallocation and a sell-off of the US dollar.
As you can see in the figure below, by 2025:
"Market bets on a fall in the dollar have expanded to more than $30 billion in net shorts, a record high in recent years."
"At the same time, the multilateral dollar index, which represents the overall strength of the U.S. dollar, also fell below 100 points, indicating that global investors' confidence in the U.S. dollar is clearly declining."
Bitcoin and gold are new reserve assets with unique advantages
Coinbase pointed out that this is not the first crisis of confidence in the US dollar, but this institutional change may bring back attention to "store of value assets", including gold and Bitcoin.
Gold will be classified as a Tier 1 high-quality liquid asset by international regulators (Basel III) from July 2025
Bitcoin, on the other hand, relies on:
Not subject to state control
Freedom from freezing and sanctions
Just keep it yourself, flexible circulation
Because of these characteristics, BTC is regarded as an asset that is "not influenced by the country" and is particularly suitable for international trading occasions that are sensitive to sovereign currencies. For example:
- Russia has 2,000 tonnes of gold stored overseas, but cannot be used due to sanctions
- The Argentine government has frozen people’s gold and US dollar assets in the past to prevent capital outflows, but it is difficult to implement similar controls on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin enters the national vision, but de-dollarization is still in its early stages
Currently, more than 80% of the world's international trade is still settled in US dollars, but more and more current account surplus countries such as China and Switzerland have begun to question whether they should continue to rely on the US dollar as an intermediary. As can be seen from the figure below:
"The U.S. dollar still accounts for nearly 90% of global foreign exchange transactions. Although the voice of de-dollarization is becoming increasingly obvious, it is still in its early stages."
Although the euro is the second largest reserve currency, it is difficult to replace the role of the US dollar due to the limitations of the European Central Bank's mechanism and fiscal fragmentation.
On the other hand, although BTC is more volatile, it has the characteristics of digital nativeness and non-sovereignty, and is expected to become a record in cross-border trade and reserve systems. As Coinbase points out:
“If 10% of global foreign exchange reserves were transferred to Bitcoin, it would contribute $1.2 trillion to BTC’s market value.”
Countries and the United States begin to hoard coins, and Bitcoin ETF promotes universal participation
Coinbase also observed that countries are increasingly interested in Bitcoin as a strategic reserve:
In March 2025, the White House officially included 198,000 seized BTC into the "strategic reserve".
China also holds about 190,000 BTC due to judicial confiscation, but this has not been officially acknowledged.
Switzerland, Japan, Finland, Poland and other countries are also studying whether to include it in national asset allocation.
In addition, the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in 2024 will make it easier for retail and institutional investors to enter the market. As can be seen from the figure below, by 2025:
“The number of wallet addresses holding more than 0.01 bitcoins has exceeded 14 million, indicating that the user base continues to expand and BTC is gradually moving towards becoming a mainstream and popular stored value asset.”
As the dollar's hegemony loosens, Bitcoin takes advantage of the situation to rise
Overall, Coinbase believes that although the status of the US dollar will not be replaced instantly, this wave of structural changes may prompt capital to shift to new types of value-added assets.
Gold is certainly stable, but Bitcoin has the potential to become the "digital reserve asset" of the new era because of its self-custody and its lack of geopolitical influence.
In the next ten years, if the reserve asset market grows from the current US$20 trillion to US$53 trillion, even if it is just a piece of the pie, the potential upside of Bitcoin cannot be underestimated. As can be seen from the figure below, as of May 2025:
“The risk-adjusted return (Z-score) of Bitcoin (BTC) and the top 50 cryptocurrencies (COIN50) has returned to the Z-score 2 level, which is significantly better than the S&P 500’s Z-score of about 0.”
"Since Trump's Liberation Day on April 2, crypto asset returns have recovered significantly faster than traditional stocks, indicating that market funds are again preferring high-volatility, high-potential assets."
Risk Warning
Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk, their prices may fluctuate dramatically, and you may lose all your investment. Please assess the risks carefully.
