Ark Invest bets on crypto exchange Bullish after selloff

Ark Invest bought $4.4 million in Bullish shares after the crypto exchange’s stock fell for five trading days and then posted a small rebound.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought Bullish shares across three exchange-traded funds this week. The purchases went into ARK Innovation ETF, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF.

The firm bought 52,308 Bullish shares on May 18, according to market reports. It then added 69,712 shares on May 19, worth about $2.48 million at the day’s price. That brought the combined two-day purchase to about $4.4 million.

Bullish stock rebounds after five-day drop

Bullish shares had fallen 15.4% across five trading days before recovering 1.88% on Tuesday to close at $36.23. The stock was still down 16.7% over the past month.

Ark often changes its ETF holdings as prices move. The firm also manages position sizes so that a single stock does not become too large inside one fund. That rule can lead to new buys or sales when crypto-linked equities move sharply.

Additioanlly, the purchases came after Bullish reported mixed first-quarter results. The company posted a net loss of $604.9 million for the quarter, compared with a loss of $348.6 million a year earlier. Adjusted revenue rose to $92.8 million from $62.4 million.

Bullish also reported $51.8 billion in digital asset sales. Its options trading volume reached $11.6 billion during the quarter, while open interest captured a 14% market share in April.

Equiniti deal remains central to growth plan

Bullish CEO Tom Farley pointed to the planned Equiniti acquisition as part of the company’s long-term strategy. He said, “With the proposed acquisition of Equiniti, we will have all three elements required to become a powerhouse leading the blockchain era.”

Related coverage said the $4.2 billion Equiniti deal would give Bullish access to a transfer agent serving 3,000 major companies and about 20 million shareholders. Bullish described the deal as a way to build tokenized securities infrastructure at institutional scale.

Ark has backed Bullish since IPO

Ark has shown interest in Bullish since its public listing. Related market coverage noted that Bullish raised $1.1 billion in its IPO after selling 30 million shares at $37 each. The listing valued the exchange at about $5.4 billion.

Ark also bought Bullish shares soon after the IPO. Earlier coverage showed ARKK bought 356,346 shares in August 2025, worth about $21.2 million at the time, after Ark had already allocated roughly $172 million across three funds on Bullish’s first trading day.