Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Sells $51.7M in Circle Shares as CRCL Hits Record High

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest offloaded $51.7 million worth of Circle Internet Group shares on Monday, just as the stablecoin issuer's stock soared to its highest level since its recent public debut.

According to the firm’s latest trade disclosures, Ark sold a combined 342,658 shares of Circle (traded under the ticker CRCL) across three of its ETFs. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) led the move, selling 196,367 shares. ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) sold 92,310, while ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) trimmed 53,981 shares.

Circle’s stock surged to an intraday peak of $165.60 before settling at $151.06 — up 13.1% on the day and nearly five times its IPO price of $31. The strong rally comes just weeks after Circle’s blockbuster $1.1 billion IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, where Ark Invest took an early and sizeable position, buying roughly $373.4 million worth of shares.

The Boston-based firm is best known for its USDC stablecoin, the second-largest U.S. dollar-pegged digital asset after Tether’s USDT. Circle’s prominence in the digital finance space has attracted heightened investor attention, especially as stablecoin regulation takes center stage in Washington.

Much of the recent momentum around stablecoins has been linked to the pending GENIUS Act, a bill poised for a final Senate vote that could set clearer rules for how dollar-backed digital currencies operate in the U.S. market.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has likened the current state of stablecoins to the early days of smartphones. Over the weekend, he posted on X that developers haven't yet realized the full potential of “programmable digital dollars,” but he believes that shift is imminent.