Brendan McDermid/Reuters
- Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought about 830,000 Twitter shares worth about $55 million on Thursday.
- She bought stock after the social-media company said it will let users send and get tips in bitcoin.
- The Twitter bet reflects Woods' thinking that regulatory issues for digital assets will be manageable.
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Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought about 830,000 Twitter shares worth $55 million Thursday after the social-a company rolled out a feature that enables users to send and receive tips in bitcoin.
The investment firm's flagship fund ARK Innovation ETF purchased 661,141 shares in the company, while the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF picked up another 168,766 shares, according to a trade notification update.
Cathie Wood's Twitter bet reflects her thinking that ongoing regulatory issues for digital assets will be manageable. Rule-enforcing agencies around the world have intensified their scrutiny of exchanges and cryptocurrencies as they have become more popular.
In the US, Securities and Exchange Commission boss Chair Gary Gensler has taken a tough stance, saying recently that cryptocurrencies might not be a viable form of payment for long-term use. The SEC chairman has called for greater investor protection around the industry, stoking fears that Wall Street's top regulator is working overtime to create a set of rules that may limit innovation within the volatile cryptocurrency market.
But Wood, whose investing strategy is centered around disruption innovation in tech, recently made a bullish prediction for bitcoin, saying it could hit as much as $500,000 in five years. The digital asset was trading at $42,563 Friday, 3.5% lower on the day, according to data from CoinDesk.
Bitcoin tipping is not the only new feature Twitter flagged. The social network plans to allow its users to connect their crypto wallets to facilitate bitcoin tips, and to authenticate non-fungible tokens displayed on profiles as belonging to the account holder. There are no concrete plans for NFTs yet, but Twitter has said it's in the exploration process.
Another new feature announced by Twitter is Super Follows, a monthly subscription service where creators charge a fee for access to premium content.
Twitter was last trading at $66.72 per share on Friday, and is up 23% so far this year.