Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Sells $109 Million in Circle Shares Amid 600% Stock Surge

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold over $109 million worth of Circle shares on Monday, capitalizing on the stock's significant post-IPO rally. The firm offloaded 415,844 shares across three of its ETFs: the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) sold 306,921 shares, ARKW sold 72,302 shares, and ARKF sold 36,621 shares. This move comes just weeks after Ark acquired more than 4.4 million Circle shares during the stablecoin issuer’s public market debut on June 5, when Circle priced its IPO at $31 per share. Since then, the stock has surged nearly 600%.

Circle’s stock closed Monday up 9.6% at $263.45, adding another 2.7% in after-hours trading. This surge pushed its market capitalization to $68.9 billion, briefly surpassing both Coinbase and Circle’s own USDC stablecoin by market cap. The momentum behind Circle’s rise has been driven by the recent Senate passage of the GENIUS Act, a significant stablecoin bill now heading to the House. Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, has publicly urged lawmakers to advance the bill.

The latest rally has sparked some confusion among analysts. Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime Digital Assets, noted that Circle’s market cap exceeding that of Coinbase’s makes little sense from a fundamentals perspective. Coinbase captures about half of Circle’s revenue and operates multiple lines of business. However, Blume acknowledged that this is not a fundamentals market but an attention market. CRCL hit an intraday high of $298 on Monday, briefly pushing its fully diluted valuation past $77 billion.

In the same session, Ark Invest also added 319,640 shares of Robinhood (roughly $24.4 million) and small quantities of Coinbase (4,198 shares, ~$1.3 million) across ARKW and ARKF. Despite the rapid rise in CRCL, many believe the current valuations are due for a correction. Blume wrote in a June 20 note to clients that these wild multiples will eventually come back into line with reality. The question remains where they will meet in the middle and whether investors can catch the wave early enough to benefit from the hype.

CRCL has emerged as a retail favorite in recent days, but many investors who missed out on Circle’s IPO appear to be rotating into Coinbase as a backdoor stablecoin trade. Under their current agreement, Coinbase collects 50% of USDC reserve interest income, a figure bolstered by rising front-end yields and stablecoin adoption. Meanwhile, analysts have begun lifting their price targets for Coinbase, citing the GENIUS Act, stablecoin payment partnerships with Stripe and Shopify, and its newly launched Amex-backed credit card as transformative catalysts.

The next critical test comes in Congress. The House must now decide whether to advance its own stablecoin framework or take up the Senate-backed bill. Trump has indicated he wants the bill signed by August. The outcome of these legislative actions will significantly impact the future trajectory of Circle and other stablecoin issuers in the market.