Is Cathie Wood Back After ARK's $500M Circle Win?

Sumit Roy

Tue, Jun 10, 2025, 5:00 AM 3 min read

ARK Invest is reaping the rewards of a bold bet on the latest crypto company to hit the public markets. Shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL), the firm behind the USDC stablecoin, exploded out of the gate after its initial public offering last Thursday, sending several of ARK’s actively managed exchange-traded funds sharply higher.

Circle priced its IPO at $31 a share and opened trading with a bang, climbing as high as $139 by Monday. Before the offering, ARK had indicated it would purchase up to $150 million worth of shares at the IPO price, equivalent to about 4.8 million shares.

On Thursday, ARK confirmed that it had acquired a combined 4.5 million Circle shares across three of its funds:

• 3 million shares for the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK)

• 927,000 shares for the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW)

• 534,000 shares for the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF)

If ARK was able to purchase those shares near the IPO price, it would be up more than $500 million at Monday’s high.

The surge in Circle’s stock price helped power a big rally in the ARK funds. ARKK jumped 8.5% on Friday, ARKW rallied 6.8% and ARKF gained 6.3%.

Circle is now a top holding in each fund:

• 5.4% of ARKK (sixth-largest holding)

• 5.5% of ARKW (seventh-largest)

• 5.3% of ARKF (fifth-largest)

The successful IPO and outsized gains highlight one of the benefits of active ETFs: the ability to participate meaningfully in hot new offerings, something that’s often out of reach for individual investors.

That said, Circle’s debut is far from typical. Most IPOs don’t quadruple in a matter of days.

The enthusiasm around Circle reflects investor excitement about the company’s role in the growing world of stablecoins. USDC, the company’s flagship product, is the second-largest stablecoin globally with a market value topping $60 billion.

Stablecoins are blockchain-based representations of traditional currencies, like the U.S. dollar and the euro, and are redeemable for the real underlying currency. While domestic payment systems have become faster and cheaper in recent years, stablecoins offer advantages for international transfers, allowing money to move across borders more quickly and cheaply than with traditional bank transfers or card networks.

Circle earns revenue by holding reserves behind USDC and investing those reserves in safe, interest-bearing assets. With interest rates currently at relatively high levels, so too are Circle’s earnings, helping boost its appeal as a public company.

The big win in Circle has led some to wonder whether Cathie Wood’s ETFs could be staging a comeback.