Coinbase: Cathie Wood, Bitcoin and disagreements with CZ. Everything you need to know

Potential good news in the last few hours for Coinbase, the crypto exchange that, like many others in the industry, has been facing several difficulties since the collapse of FTX. 

Indeed, the exchange’s CEO recently affirmed the amount of Bitcoin held by the platform in a tweet. Not only that, Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, an investment management firm, has purchased $63 million worth of Coinbase shares, a Twitter post stated in recent hours. 

What’s more, CZ, CEO of Binance, steps back from his last statements about Coinbase’s Bitcoin holdings, indirectly addressed as FUD by Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase. 

But let’s proceed step by step to see everything there is to know. 

Armstrong reveals the amount of Bitcoin held by Coinbase: transparency in an uncertain market 

In recent hours, Watcher.Guru wrote in a tweet: 

JUST IN: Coinbase $COIN CEO says the exchange holds 2,000,000 #Bitcoin ($39.9 billion).

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) November 22, 2022

“Coinbase $COIN CEO says the exchange holds 2,000,000 #Bitcoin ($39.9 billion).”

In a letter to shareholders released by Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase revealed that the company holds $39.9 billion in Bitcoin. Not coincidentally, the release of the letter came during massive market transparency efforts during the FTX collapse.

On Twitter, in fact, the CEO shared the amount of Bitcoin while reinforcing the fact that Coinbase is a public company. Later, he urged consumers to be wary of financial data that does not come from the platform itself.

In reference to the massive market response to the collapse of the FTX crypto platform, Brian Armstrong is one of the first to shed light, stating on Twitter: 

“We must all come together to responsibly build this industry moving forward.”

It all starts with the FTX fiasco: the industry’s major platforms are increasingly adopting transparency measures for current and potential customers. And, through this process, many interesting notes have been obtained about the various holdings of these cryptocurrency platforms.

Such is the case with the recent information shared by Armstrong. Indeed, the fact that Coinbase holds about $39.9 billion worth of Bitcoin means that it is equivalent to about 2 million BTC. 

Unfortunately, Coinbase has been one of the exchanges most severely affected by the FTX contagion, with Bitcoin taking a major hit. Only yesterday it was reported that the FTX collapse paranoia led Coinbase to lose over a quarter of its value in four trading sessions.

Cathie Wood buys the dip: $63 million worth of Coinbase shares 

In recent hours, Bitcoin Archive has tweeted the name of Cathie Wood associated with Coinbase more than once. Specifically, it reads: 

“Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is buying more Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Coinbase shares. I guess she doesn’t believe the Grayscale FUD.”

JUST IN: Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is buying more Grayscale #Bitcoin Trust and Coinbase shares.

I guess she doesn't believe the Grayscale FUD…🤔

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) November 22, 2022

Thus, it appears that Ark Invest is making plenty of bargains in the current bearish market phase. Indeed, it appears that Ark Invest continues to increase its holdings in both the Coinbase (COIN) exchange and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)

Not only that, another tweet from Bitcoin Archive reads: 

JUST IN: Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought $63M of Coinbase, Silvergate, and GBTC shares since November 11 – Forbes

Cathie is buying the dip… 🤑

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) November 22, 2022

“Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought $63M of Coinbase, Silvergate, and GBTC shares since November 11 – Forbes. Cathie is buying the dip.”

Thus, as the FTX contagion continues to spread through the cryptocurrency sector, bringing countless companies almost to the brink of collapse, Ark has decided to increase exposure to them, particularly those in the line of fire.

According to numbers provided by Cathie’s Ark, a dedicated monitoring platform of CEO Cathie Wood, the company added 176,945 GBTC shares on 21 November. Which are added to 273,327 on 15 November, purchased just a week after FTX’s collapse.

Moreover, Coinbase itself is another target of Ark. In fact, since the beginning of November, the company has added 1.3 million COIN shares, bringing its total holding to 8.374 million, very close to all-time highs.

COIN shares now represent Ark’s 12th largest position. 

CZ’s deleted tweet following Armstrong’s redirection 

This time, the tweet in question is directly from CZ, CEO of Binance, who writes: 

Brian Armstrong just told me the numbers in the articles are wrong. Deleted the previous tweet. Let’s work together to improve transparency in the industry.

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 22, 2022

“Brian Armstrong just told me the numbers in the articles are wrong. Deleted the previous tweet. Let’s work together to improve transparency in the industry.”

Let’s see what happened. Apparently, Coinbase was trending on Twitter yesterday, after that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao sent out a tweet that seemed to question Coinbase’s Bitcoin holdings.

In the since-deleted tweet, CZ referred to a Yahoo Finance article that claimed Coinbase Custody held 635,000 BTC on behalf of Grayscale. To that information, CZ added: 

“Four months ago, Coinbase (I assume exchange) has less than 600K.”

To all this, CZ added a link to a Bitcoinist article from exactly four months ago. On the matter, the Binance CEO clarified that he was simply quoting news stories and that it was not his intention to make any personal statement. 

However, his tweet was not well received by the crypto community. In fact, shortly thereafter, Coinbase’s CEO responded indirectly to CZ in a series of tweets, stating: 

“If you see FUD out there, remember, our financials are public (we are a public company.”

He added a link to Coinbase’s third-quarter letter to shareholders, mentioned above, which clarified the amount of BTC held by Coinbase. That is why, shortly thereafter CZ deleted his tweet by posting another “apology” tweet, quoted above.