Ark Invest buys $373M of Circle shares on debut; trims holdings in Coinbase, Robinhood and own Bitcoin ETF to make room

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought 4,486,560 Circle shares, worth $373.4 million, for its Innovation (ARKK), Next Generation Internet (ARKW), and Fintech Innovation (ARKF) funds on Thursday as the USDC stablecoin issuer made its New York Stock Exchange debut.

Circle saw a near 200% surge in its share price on its first day of trading as a public company under the ticker CRCL, exceeding $96 at one point. CRCL closed up 168.5% on Thursday at $83.23, TradingView. That followed an upsized initial public offering that priced shares at $31 each, reflecting stronger-than-expected demand. 

Circle had two previous attempts to go public, once via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger in 2021 and again in 2024 following a confidentially submitted draft S-1 registration filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024.

Circle initially filed its latest prospectus with SEC for an IPO in April, but there were concerns its plans may get derailed amid the President Trump tariff-fueled market turmoil. However, with the IPO now completed, other crypto companies, such as Kraken and Animoca Brands, will be watching its performance closely amid their own plans to go public.

"Our transformation into being a public company is a significant and powerful milestone — the world is ready to start upgrading and moving to the internet financial system," Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said Thursday.

Circle's USDC is the world's second-largest U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin with a $60.6 billion supply behind Tether's USDT on $154.5 billion, according to The Block's data dashboard.

Ark's habit of buying crypto-related stocks on debut

Ark has a history of picking up investments upon listing, also buying 750,000 Coinbase shares on its April 2021 debut and 140,000 eToro shares, worth $9.4 million, following its public offering in May.

Ark's investment strategy aims to let no individual holding take up more than 10% of a fund's portfolio. This is to maintain diversification within its funds — meaning Ark is likely to continue rebalancing its weightings if the value of Circle shares rises or falls significantly relative to Ark's other holdings in its funds.

According to the firm's latest disclosures, CRCL comes in at 10th of holdings within its ARKK fund, with an initial weighting of 4.4% ($251.8 million), 8th in its ARKW fund (4.4%/$77.2 million), and 7th in its ARKF fund (4.3%/$44.5 million). To put that in perspective, Tesla, Ark Invest's Bitcoin ETF, and Shopify represent the top assets in those funds with weightings of 10.3%, 8.2%, and 9%, at a valuation of $594 million, $145 million, and $94 million, respectively. 

Ark sells off its own Bitcoin ETF and shares in Coinbase, Robinhood, and Block

Alongside the Circle buy, Ark sold off a total of $17.1 million worth of its own U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF from its Next Generation Internet fund on Thursday but ARKB remains the fund's top holding.

Ark's spot Bitcoin ETF registered $102 million in total net outflows on June 5 but has generated $2.4 billion in cumulative inflows since launching in January 2024. The fund has $4.7 billion in assets under management, according to The Block's ARKB Tracker page.

Meanwhile, Ark sold 161,304 Coinbase shares across its ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF funds, worth $39.4 million. The investment firm also offloaded 255,327 shares of Robinhood valued at $18.5 million and 163,304 shares in Jack Dorsey's Block, worth around $10.4 million, from its ARKK and ARKW funds.

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