Cathie Wood Trims About $65 Million in Crypto Assets Ahead of CLARITY Act Vote

TradingKey - On the day before a key Senate procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest trimmed its holdings amid a broad rally in crypto-concept stocks, selling approximately $65 million of crypto-related positions in a single day.

From its own ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) to Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL), BitMine (BMNR), and Bullish (BLSH), it trimmed holdings across almost the entire board.

Crypto Stocks Rally on Eve of Bill Vote

The timing of this share reduction was quite delicate. September 14, Eastern Time, happened to be the final round of maneuvering ahead of the Senate vote on the CLARITY Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act). On the Republican side, Cynthia Lummis, chair of the Digital Assets Subcommittee, among others, released a revised text described as 'last, best, and final,' incorporating 126 amendments proposed by Democrats and making concessions on ethics provisions regarding officials' crypto holdings, requiring covered officials to divest their holdings or place them into a qualified blind trust.

Progress in bipartisan negotiations directly ignited the market. On the prediction platform Polymarket, the probability of the bill passing within 2026 jumped that day from the range of 14% to 18% up to 30% to 33%. Crypto-concept stocks surged collectively as a result, with Coinbase closing up over 9%, Circle and Bullish both gaining over 7%, and BitMine rising about 3%.

Notably, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on initiating a cloture procedure at 14:15 local time on September 15, with a passage threshold of 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, which means whether the bill can advance depends on whether at least 7 Democratic senators soften their stance; meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has explicitly expressed opposition, citing major remaining loopholes in the ethics provisions.

Which Crypto Holdings Has ARK Trimmed?

Among them, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) reduced its holdings by about 1.529 million shares, valued at approximately $40 million based on that day's closing price, marking one of the largest position reductions by a single fund that day.

In addition, it reduced holdings in Circle (CRCL) by 142,350 shares, worth about $13.8 million; Coinbase (COIN) by 36,628 shares, worth about $7 million; and BitMine (BMNR) by 153,881 shares, worth about $3.96 million.

What made this reduction appear to be "impeccably timed" was the market trend over the following 24 hours. During the Asian trading session on September 15, as Democrats offered an alternative proposal and the focus of debate shifted from market structure to ethical provisions on crypto holdings by officials, the probability of the bill passing within the year on Polymarket fell from over 30% all the way to 17%–19%, nearly halving.

Bitcoin subsequently fell back from a local high above $79,000, dropping below $78,000 with a 24-hour decline of about 2% to 2.3%. In U.S. pre-market trading, Circle and Coinbase fell by more than 5%, with losses expanding to 8% and 6% at one point after the open, quickly wiping out the previous day's gains.