Ark Invest added about $17.3 million of Circle Internet Group shares and roughly $20 million of SpaceX shares on Wednesday, extending Cathie Wood’s exposure to a stablecoin issuer whose USDC supply and transaction activity continued to grow during the second quarter.
Ark’s daily trade disclosure showed purchases of 273,343 Circle shares and 181,830 SpaceX shares across several of its exchange-traded funds. Based on Circle’s $63.28 closing price on Wednesday, the Circle purchase was worth approximately $17.3 million.
The trades came as Circle’s stock finished nearly flat, rising 0.05% during the session. SpaceX shares, meanwhile, were marked at $108.27 in the data cited in Ark’s disclosure, following a sharp 13.61% decline.
Circle ranks among ARKK’s largest positions
Circle was already a substantial holding in the ARK Innovation ETF, Ark’s flagship actively managed fund. Before Wednesday’s purchases, Circle ranked as ARKK’s ninth-largest position, representing 3.68% of the portfolio and carrying a reported value of $223.4 million.
Ark’s stated portfolio rules limit a single holding to 10% of an individual fund. That cap leaves room for Ark to add Circle shares without turning the stablecoin issuer into a dominant position within ARKK, though the latest trade deepens the fund’s reliance on Circle’s ability to expand revenue beyond the interest income generated by reserves backing USDC.
Circle reported $701 million in total revenue and reserve income for the second quarter, a 7% increase from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA, a measure of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, rose 8% to $143 million, according to the company’s quarterly report.
The company ended the quarter with $73.3 billion of USDC in circulation, up 19% year over year. Circle also reported $14.8 trillion in onchain transaction volume, a 151% increase from the same period a year earlier.
Those figures illustrate the distinction between USDC’s growing role in settlement and Circle’s financial performance. Transaction volume can rise rapidly as stablecoins move between exchanges, wallets, decentralized-finance protocols and payment providers, while Circle’s income remains closely connected to the size and yield of reserves supporting its tokens.
Stablecoin growth offers a clearer operating metric
Ark’s additional Circle purchase places its funds closer to a company whose core product is tied to blockchain usage but whose revenue model is also shaped by conventional interest rates.
Circle earns reserve income from assets held against USDC, meaning its results are influenced by both the stablecoin’s circulation and returns available on short-dated government securities and cash-equivalent holdings. Higher USDC balances support a larger reserve base, while changes in rates can affect the income generated from that base.
The company’s second-quarter increase in USDC circulation was smaller than its reported rise in transaction volume. That combination suggests that USDC was moving more frequently through blockchain networks even as the outstanding supply grew at a more moderate pace.
For Ark, Circle offers exposure to tokenized-dollar infrastructure without directly holding a volatile cryptocurrency. The company remains exposed to regulatory developments, competition among stablecoin issuers and fluctuations in interest rates, but its reported revenue is connected to identifiable reserve assets and the outstanding supply of USDC.
SpaceX purchase adds to private-market technology exposure
Ark also bought 181,830 SpaceX shares, valued at about $20 million based on the disclosed end-of-day pricing. The purchase followed a steep one-day decline in the reported share price to $108.27.
SpaceX is not publicly listed, and stakes in the company are generally accessed through private transactions or funds permitted to hold private-company securities. Pricing for such holdings can differ from the continuous market pricing available for listed stocks, making daily moves less straightforward to interpret than changes in Circle shares.
Ark already had significant exposure to the rocket and satellite company. The supplied portfolio data indicated that its primary innovation fund held roughly $283 million in SpaceX before the latest decline in the reported share price.
The SpaceX allocation gives Ark’s funds exposure to launch services, Starlink’s satellite-internet business and the company’s long-term ambitions in communications and space infrastructure. It also adds valuation risk associated with private-company holdings, where transactions are less frequent and price discovery is more limited.
Sales in Roblox and Palantir help fund purchases
Ark financed part of Wednesday’s buying activity by reducing positions in Roblox and Palantir Technologies. The firm sold 467,486 Roblox shares and 70,259 Palantir shares, according to its trade disclosure.
The transactions reflect Ark’s active portfolio-management approach rather than a wholesale departure from software and artificial-intelligence companies. Roblox and Palantir have both been recurring holdings across Ark products, and a sale in one session does not establish a broader change in the firm’s view of either business.
The more immediate portfolio shift is toward two companies with very different forms of infrastructure exposure: Circle through dollar-backed blockchain settlement and SpaceX through launch and satellite networks. Circle’s quarterly results provide a current operational measure of USDC’s growth, while SpaceX’s valuation remains tied to private-market assessments and the execution of capital-intensive expansion plans.
Want deeper context on Circle and USDC’s rise? Explore stablecoins in our guide here today.
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