Ark Invest buys 217,896 Circle shares for $14M, sells Robinhood stake
Cathie Wood's firm continues its aggressive accumulation of the USDC issuer while trimming a profitable Robinhood position worth nearly $10M
Cathie Wood is doing what Cathie Wood does best: making bold, conviction-driven trades that get the entire market talking. On July 9, Ark Invest scooped up 217,896 shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) at a cost of roughly $13.7 million, while simultaneously offloading 85,319 shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD) worth approximately $9.8 million.
The numbers behind the swap
Circle shares closed at $63.01 on the day of the trade, down 1.65%. Ark was buying into weakness, which is very on-brand for a firm that has built its reputation on catching falling knives and occasionally being right about it.
Robinhood, meanwhile, closed at $115.11, up 1.39%. Selling into strength is the mirror image of the same strategy. Lock in gains on a winner, redeploy capital into what you believe is a deeper value play.
This wasn’t a one-off move. Ark has been steadily building its Circle position throughout 2026. Just eight days earlier, on July 1, the firm purchased approximately $18 million worth of CRCL shares. Back in May, another $5.5 million went into the stock following Circle’s earnings report. Add this latest $13.7 million purchase, and you’re looking at well over $37 million deployed into a single name in roughly two months.
Why Circle, why now
Circle is the issuer of USDC, one of the most widely used stablecoins in crypto. The company went public in 2025, and shares initially surged nearly 300% from their offering price. At $63.01, CRCL sits well below those post-IPO highs, creating the kind of entry point that growth-focused investors like Ark find irresistible.
What this means for investors
That said, there are real risks here. Circle’s revenue is heavily tied to interest earned on USDC reserves, which means its profitability is sensitive to interest rate movements. If rates come down significantly, that revenue stream compresses. The company also faces intense competition from Tether, whose USDT continues to dominate stablecoin market share globally.
The pattern to watch going forward is whether Ark’s buying pace accelerates or stabilizes. Over $37 million into a single stock in two months is aggressive even by Cathie Wood’s standards, and any pause in accumulation would signal that the firm has reached its target allocation, or that something in the thesis has changed.