Cathie Wood’s ARK Buys $40M in Block, Circle Stock in One Session

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought nearly $40 million in shares of two crypto-linked companies on Monday, adding to positions in Block Inc. and Circle Internet Group as both stocks moved in opposite directions during the session. The purchases extend a pattern Ark has followed through much of 2026: buying Block and Circle as its primary listed proxies for on-chain payments and regulated stablecoins.

ARK Scoops Up Block Inc. and Circle Shares

Ark’s trading disclosure shows the firm bought 456,059 shares of Block, Jack Dorsey’s fintech company, split across the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). At Monday’s closing price of $82.02, the purchase totaled roughly $37.4 million. Block shares fell 1.85% on the day, giving Ark another buying opportunity in a stock it has repeatedly added to during periods of weakness — including 236,759 shares worth $17.2 million in June and 19,029 shares worth $1.52 million in July.

Circle moved the opposite direction. Ark bought 35,192 shares of the stablecoin issuer, worth about $3.36 million at Monday’s closing price of $95.55, as CRCL jumped 9.65% on the day. That gain followed a 7.5% drop on Friday and caps a run that has taken Circle up 52.6% over the past 30 days. The purchase continues Ark’s steady accumulation of Circle through 2026, including 220,012 shares for roughly $13.9 million in July when the stock traded below $64, and 109,129 shares worth $6.83 million later that same month after Circle received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services.

What’s Driving Block and Circle Right Now

Block’s second-quarter results give context to Ark’s continued buying. Gross profit rose 25% year-over-year to $3.17 billion, split between $1.16 billion from Square and $1.97 billion from Cash App, while diluted earnings per share climbed to $1.02. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance to $12.51 billion in gross profit and $3.47 billion in adjusted operating income — implying roughly 21% annual growth. Block also expanded its Bitcoin treasury in June, adding 85 BTC to bring total holdings to 9,117 BTC.

Circle’s fundamentals point in a similar direction. USDC circulation stood at $73.3 billion, and the company reported second-quarter revenue of $701 million. Bernstein maintained an Outperform rating on Circle ahead of Ark’s Monday purchase, setting a $140 price target and citing growth in stablecoin payments, blockchain capital markets, and emerging agentic-payment use cases — a case the firm says holds regardless of whether the CLARITY Act passes.

Conclusion

Monday’s trades are modest by Wall Street standards, but the pattern behind them is the more relevant signal: Ark has treated Block and Circle as its two core public proxies for crypto-adjacent growth for most of 2026, buying into weakness on one and strength on the other within the same session. With both companies posting double-digit growth in their latest quarters, Ark’s continued accumulation suggests Wood’s firm is positioning for that growth to persist independent of near-term price swings or regulatory timing in Washington.