The Bitcoin Investment Trust also strengthened as the underlying Bitcoin cryptocurrency now trades at around $2,268.6 after jumping 57.5% over the past month.
Fund provider ARK Invest believes that bitcoin, a form of digital currency that has been growing in popularity as an alternative to traditional paper currencies, could disrupt the $500 billion intermediary payment platform industry, which covers credit cards, electronic payments and remittances. The new form of currency has already gained wide acceptance from major companies, such as Dell (NasdaqGS: DELL), Overstock (NasdaqGS: OSTK) and Expedia (NasdaqGS: EXPE), among others.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, or cryptocurrency, based on a peer-to-peer network and can be exchanged through computers internationally without a financial intermediary. The system was first introduced by an unidentified programmer or group under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.
ARKW tracks a number of companies that benefit from increase use of shared technology, infrastructure and services in cloud computing, big data, social media, internet, devices and gateways, e-commerce, media ecosystems, health care, sharing economy, point of sale, telecom and cryptocurrencies.
Along with its allocation to GBTC, ARKW’s top holdings also include other forerunners known for their innovations, including AthenaHealth 7.0%, Amazon.com 6.9%. 2U Inc 4.3%, HortonWorks 4.1%, Tesla 3.9%, Nvidia 3.9%, Netflix 3.3%, Alphabet Inc 3.2% and Facebook 3.2%, with a heavy 67.5% tilt toward tech sector picks, along with 25.7% consumer discretionary and 5.0% financial services.