Coinbase surprise, is there a bigger picture for Cathie Wood of Ark invest?

Cathie Wood's Ark invest sold 214,068 shares of Coinbase ahead of earnings. And today, Coinbase reported surprising revenue results for the fourth quarter of last year. Coinbase's revenue for the period was $95.3 billion, beating expectations ($8.26 billion). Total transaction volume for the period was $154 billion, a 100% increase from Q3, and also exceeded expectations ($142.7 billion). "We were positively impacted by the surge in most cryptocurrency prices in 2023 and increased interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly in anticipation of the bitcoin spot ETF that was approved last month," Coinbase said. Coinbase's stock price rose about 15% in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.

Meanwhile, the Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the difference between the price of bitcoin on Binance and Coinbase, rose to 0.12 on Thursday, its highest level since May 2023, a measure of the valuation of the leading U.S. crypto exchange. A higher premium indicates relatively strong buying pressure on Coinbase. Markus Thielen, Head of Research at MatrixPort and founder of 10X Research, also commented: "Most of the recent gains in the bitcoin price have occurred during US trading hours. Over the past 30 days, the BTC price has increased by 17%, 11% of which occurred during US trading hours," adding to the view that US-based buying is driving BTC's recent gains.