Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought 3.3 million SpaceX shares on its IPO day

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought 3.3 million SpaceX shares on its IPO day

Markets

Ark Invest bought more than $500 million worth of SpaceX shares on IPO day

The purchases were likely funded by selling other positions, data shows. ARK is also one of the loudest bitcoin bulls, with a million-dollar target for 2030.

By

Shaurya Malwa

|

Edited by

Sheldon Reback

Updated

Jun 15, 2026, 8:13 a.m.

Published

Jun 15, 2026, 7:52 a.m.

2

min read

Make

preferred on

Share

Share this article

Copy link

X icon

X (Twitter)

LinkedIn

Facebook

Email

Make

preferred on

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought $500 million worth of SpaceX stock. (CoinDesk archives)

Summary

Show

ARK Invest built a stake of nearly 3.3 million SpaceX shares worth more than $500 million on the day of the company’s record-setting IPO.

Cathie Wood’s firm sold more than $325 million of stock across at least 13 companies in the days around the listing.

ARK’s shift of risk capital from crypto toward high-growth names like SpaceX, alongside its $2.5 trillion base-case valuation target for the company by 2030, underscores how institutional investors are favoring AI and space IPOs over digital assets in the near term.

ARK Invest bought nearly 3.3 million shares of SpaceX (SPCX) as Elon Musk's company went public in the largest IPO ever on Friday, building a stake worth more than $500 million by the end of the day.

The shares,

priced at $135 for the sale

, closed at $160.95, rising more than 19.2% on their first day.

The Cathie Wood-owned firm liquidated almost $280 million of stock in the week before the listing, then sold another roughly 948,000 shares across 13 companies worth at least $48 million on Friday, including Advanced Micro Devices, Roku and Baidu, according to daily emailed statements over the period.

The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) did the bulk of the buying, ending the day with SpaceX at 3.28% of its portfolio.

A first-day pop of almost 20% on the largest IPO in history signals institutions are paying up for high-beta innovation risk again. While bitcoin is the highest-beta asset in the group, the hottest trade in the market is now a wave of AI and space listings, with OpenAI and Anthropic also filing to go public.

There is a finite amount of risk capital, and when even a bitcoin bull like Wood is rotating toward it rather than adding to crypto, it's a sign that funds are likely to

continue being sucked out of the crypto

markets in the near term.

An

ARK model

targets a $2.5 trillion enterprise value for SpaceX in 2030, with a bull case near $3.1 trillion, built off the company's $350 billion private valuation in 2024.

ARK also runs a spot bitcoin ETF, and Wood has been among the most vocal institutional bitcoin bulls, with long-term price targets

running into seven figures

.

Institutional Investors

SpaceX

Latest Crypto News

1

Ether, XRP and dogecoin lead a broad crypto selloff as tech stocks tumble

24 minutes ago

2

Live markets: Bitcoin rebounds to nearly $60,000. Kospi, Nikkei sink

55 minutes ago

3

Asset management giant Invesco files for tokenized fund targeting stablecoin reserve market

9 hours ago

4

Coinbase's Base blockchain resumes after two-hour outage disrupted network

11 hours ago

5

Strategy's yield-generating STRC stock is more correlated with BTC than ever

12 hours ago

6

Kraken in talks to buy 15% stake in DeFi lender Aave at $385 million valuation

12 hours ago

7

a16z-backed crypto firm rebrands, shifts focus to solving AI’s global copyright headache

13 hours ago

8

BlackBerry is making a massive comeback as an 'uncrashable' software layer for AI and robotics

14 hours ago

9

Strategy has a 10-month cash runway for dividends, but retail investors are losing faith

14 hours ago

10

Quant fund says bitcoin is near a major inflection point as rare onchain signals align

14 hours ago

Latest Research

CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High

CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

By

CoinDesk Research

Jun 15, 2026

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

Why it matters

:

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

View Full Report

More From

Markets

Ether, XRP and dogecoin lead a broad crypto selloff as tech stocks tumble

Strategy's yield-generating STRC stock is more correlated with BTC than ever

BlackBerry is making a massive comeback as an 'uncrashable' software layer for AI and robotics

CD20

$1,600.44

CD20 down 3.77 percent

3.77%

BTC

$59,693.45

BTC down 3.17 percent

3.17%

ETH

$1,546.53

ETH down 6.35 percent

6.35%

XRP

$1.03

XRP down 5.35 percent

5.35%

SOL

$68.03

SOL down 1.91 percent

1.91%