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Key Takeaways
- ARK Invest bought 220,000 Circle shares on Tuesday for about $13.9 million, bringing its July purchases to 725,517 shares.
- Circle stock is down about 22% year-to-date and 76% below its post-IPO peak, pressured partly by competition from the new Open USD stablecoin.
- 10x Research dropped its buy rating on Circle, while Wall Street’s consensus price target of $131.76 implies more than 100% upside.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought roughly 220,000 shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) across three of its actively managed exchange-traded funds on Tuesday, bringing its disclosed July purchases of the USDC issuer to 725,517 shares even as the stock continues a steep decline.
A Third Straight Month Of Buying Through The Selloff
ARK paid Circle’s Tuesday closing price of $63.22 on the New York Stock Exchange for the latest tranche, worth about $13.9 million, according to the firm’s daily trade disclosures. The purchase follows earlier July buys of 287,609 shares on July 1 and 217,896 shares on July 9, extending a pattern ARK has maintained since Circle’s June 2025 initial public offering, when the firm deployed roughly $373 million into the stock on its first day of trading.
Circle shares were down about 22% year-to-date through Tuesday’s close, roughly 68% lower than a year earlier, and about 76% below their post-IPO peak, when the stock briefly traded above $260 intraday shortly after listing.
A Longer Pattern Of Buying The Dips
Tuesday’s purchase is the latest in a string of similar moves ARK has made throughout 2026. The firm’s largest single-session Circle purchase this year came on March 24, when it deployed $16.34 million into the stock as CRCL fell 20% in a single day.
ARK added another $5.5 million to its position following Circle’s first-quarter 2026 earnings report. Across 2025 and 2026, the firm has spread its Circle holdings across ARKK, ARKW and ARKF, with the stock at one point ranking as ARKK’s third-largest position.
Where The Purchases Landed Across ARK’s Funds
Tuesday’s buying was split across three funds: ARKK added 159,517 shares, ARKW added 42,400 shares, and ARKF picked up 18,095 shares. ARKK simultaneously trimmed 27,742 shares of Robinhood Markets, the second Robinhood reduction the fund has made this month, part of a broader rotation that saw ARK add positions in Coinbase, Circle, Bullish and Robinhood in late June before beginning to trim Robinhood again in July.
As of Wednesday, Circle represented 4.37% of ARKF, making it that fund’s seventh-largest holding at a value of about $33 million, and 3.35% of ARKK, where it ranked as the ninth-largest holding worth roughly $218 million, according to ARK’s published fund data.
What’s Driving Circle’s Decline
Circle’s latest leg down followed the launch of Open USD, a consortium-backed stablecoin whose backers include Coinbase and BlackRock, both of which are also major partners and shareholders tied to Circle’s own USDC.
The new entrant has intensified competitive pressure on USDC at a time when Circle’s stock was already trading well below its IPO-era highs.
Not Every Analyst Still Sees A Buying Opportunity
Digital asset research platform 10x Research said in a Tuesday report that it no longer considers Circle a buy after the stock fell back below $80, a level it had previously flagged as attractive.
The firm said Circle’s fundamentals have “meaningfully deteriorated,” pointing to slowing USDC activity, including a decline in active addresses, as a specific concern. The report added that the stock’s decline could still mark either a long-term buying opportunity or the start of a more prolonged downturn, without endorsing either outcome as more likely.
Wall Street’s broader analyst consensus remains more optimistic than 10x Research. A composite price target near $131.76 implies more than 100% upside from current levels, though that figure reflects analyst estimates rather than a confirmed catalyst.
USDC’s Market Cap Still Higher Than A Year Ago
USDC’s market capitalization has declined roughly 3% year-to-date to about $73 billion, according to CoinGecko data, though it remains about 17% higher than a year earlier. The stablecoin’s broader growth trend contrasts with the sharper pullback in Circle’s equity price, a gap that highlights the difference between the company’s stock performance and the underlying token’s circulation.
