Ark Invest adds Block Inc. and Circle shares in latest buying spree

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has bought about $37.4 million worth of Block Inc. shares after the Jack Dorsey-led fintech company fell nearly 2% in Monday trading.

According to Ark Invest’s latest trading disclosure, the investment manager purchased 456,059 Block shares across three of its actively managed exchange-traded funds as it increased its exposure to the fintech company following another decline in its stock.

The shares were distributed across the Ark Innovation ETF, Ark Next Generation Internet ETF and Ark Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF. Block closed Monday at $82.02, down 1.85% for the session.

Ark’s latest purchase extends a series of investments in Block this year, including acquisitions made during earlier periods of weakness in the company’s stock.

Ark Invest adds to Block position after Monday decline

Ark’s actively managed ETFs follow portfolio limits designed to prevent individual positions from becoming too concentrated. Under the investment manager’s strategy, a single company generally cannot account for more than 10% of a fund’s portfolio.

The firm regularly adjusts positions as stock prices move, buying and selling shares to maintain its desired portfolio weights.

That approach has resulted in several purchases of Block during 2026. In June, Ark acquired 236,759 Block shares worth roughly $17.2 million through ARKK while making a series of changes to its crypto-related holdings.

Later, the investment manager added more Block shares in July alongside a larger purchase of Circle Internet Group stock. The firm bought 19,029 Block shares through ARKW and ARKF in that transaction, worth about $1.52 million based on Block’s $79.99 closing price at the time.

Ark has used periods of weakness across crypto-linked equities to build positions in several companies this year. Crypto.news previously reported that the investment manager bought crypto stocks including Coinbase, Circle, Bullish and Robinhood after all four declined during a June trading session.

Block has remained one of the companies included in those purchases, with Ark buying another batch following the fintech company’s second-quarter earnings in August.

Block raised its 2026 profit outlook

Block reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results in August, with gross profit rising 25% from a year earlier to $3.17 billion.

Cash App accounted for $1.97 billion of gross profit, up 31% year over year, while Square generated $1.16 billion, an increase of 13%. Adjusted operating income reached $864 million, representing a 27% margin, according to Block’s shareholder letter.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at $1.02.

Following the results, Block raised its full-year gross profit forecast to $12.51 billion, representing expected growth of 21% from 2025. The previous forecast stood at $12.33 billion, or 19% growth.

Adjusted operating income is expected to reach $3.47 billion for the year with a 28% margin, while adjusted diluted earnings per share are projected to increase 70%.

Cash App has remained one of the main contributors to the company’s financial performance. Monthly transacting active users increased 3% year over year in June, while Cash App Commerce Enablement volume rose 17% and consumer lending originations increased 59%.

Block has continued investing in artificial intelligence after reducing its workforce by roughly 40% in February. The company said agentic AI helped write and review nearly all production code changes during June as it increased the use of internally developed tools across its operations.

One of those tools, Builderbot, had already been handling about 15% of production code changes earlier in the year. As crypto.news reported in June, the system was running more than 200,000 operations per day and merging roughly 1,500 pull requests each week.

Mizuho analysts raised questions about Block’s operating costs following the second-quarter results despite the workforce reduction. The bank estimated adjusted operating expenses would increase from $4.48 billion in the first half of 2026 to $4.56 billion during the second half based on the company’s guidance.

Mizuho maintained an Outperform rating and a $100 price target while questioning whether Block would need further investment to increase Cash App monthly active users.

Block has continued expanding its Bitcoin exposure alongside its payments and AI businesses. In August, the company increased its Bitcoin treasury by 85 BTC to 9,117 BTC, placing it 15th among publicly tracked corporate Bitcoin holders at the time.

The purchase came weeks after Block entered the S&P 500 in July, replacing Hess Corp. following Chevron’s acquisition of the oil producer.

Ark Invest buys more Circle shares

Ark’s Monday trades extended beyond Block, with the investment manager buying another 35,192 shares of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group.

The Circle purchase was worth roughly $3.36 million based on Monday’s closing price of $95.55. Unlike Block, Circle finished the session sharply higher, gaining 9.65% after falling 7.5% on Friday.

The purchase continues Ark’s accumulation of Circle shares during 2026. In July, the firm bought 220,012 shares worth approximately $13.9 million after CRCL fell below $64, distributing the position across ARKK, ARKW and ARKF.

Ark returned to the stock later that month, purchasing 109,129 Circle shares worth approximately $6.83 million after the stablecoin issuer received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services.

Circle’s shares have since recovered, gaining 52.6% over the past month.

Bernstein maintained an Outperform rating on Circle last week and set a $140 price target. The brokerage cited USDC adoption across stablecoin payments, blockchain-based capital markets and emerging agentic payment applications among the areas supporting its outlook.

The brokerage said USDC supply had increased by about $1.7 billion during the preceding week following nearly six months of mostly flat growth. Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume was running at an annualized pace of roughly $17 trillion through July, compared with roughly $11 trillion during 2025.

Bernstein estimated that Circle’s stablecoin accounts for roughly 80% of decentralized exchange trading and finance volumes. The company has expanded its payment infrastructure around USDC as well, with more than 900 paid services using Agent Stack and 99.3% of x402 agent payment volume settling in USDC, according to the brokerage’s latest Circle assessment.

Circle reported $701 million in second-quarter revenue, up 7% year over year, while USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion at the end of the period.