Cathie Wood and Duan Yongping Both Eye Circle, Why Is This Stablecoin Giant Being Snapped Up?

Top Chinese and U.S. Tycoons Aggressively Purchasing Circle

TradingKey - According to SEC 13F filings for the first quarter of 2026, ARK Invest, led by "Tech Queen" Cathie Wood, increased its holdings of Circle ( CRCL) shares by nearly 370,000, bringing its total position to approximately 4.5 million shares with a market value exceeding $400 million. As early as May 2024, ARK Venture Fund officially disclosed the inclusion of Circle in its portfolio, a move viewed by the market as a clear pre-IPO bet on the company. Since Circle's formal listing, Wood has continued to increase her stake in the company.

Unlike Wood's early positioning in Circle, Duan Yongping, known as the "Buffett of the East," purchased shares of the company for the first time this year. According to SEC 13F filings submitted by his U.S.-managed investment account, H&H International Investment, he purchased 200,000 shares of Circle in the first quarter, valued at over $19 million. It is worth noting that Duan, like Buffett and Munger, is a staunch value investor who previously viewed cryptocurrencies as lacking intrinsic value and maintained a "keep at a distance" stance toward them.

Why Cathie Wood and Duan Yongping are Bullish on Circle

Cathie Wood and Duan Yongping, two top investment moguls with seemingly polar opposite styles, have both rarely set their sights on Circle because the company possesses an investment logic that appeals to both of them.

A top-tier "money printing machine" business model.

For Duan Yongping, the most critical factors in investment are the "business model" and "corporate moat." Circle's profit logic is one of the most lucrative models in financial history, which perfectly aligns with his investment requirements.

The logic of Circle's USDC issuance is that for every $1 in cash a user deposits, Circle issues 1 USDC, meaning Circle holds massive USD reserves. Circle uses these reserves to purchase short-term U.S. Treasuries or deposit them in banks, earning a 4% to 5% yield or deposit interest. However, Circle users receive no interest on their USDC holdings. This model is equivalent to using tens of billions of dollars in "free, interest-free loans" for arbitrage, perfectly fitting Duan Yongping's definition of a "high-quality business model."

Compliance is king.

As global regulation of crypto assets tightens in 2026, Circle's "compliance-first" strategy has entered its harvest phase, serving as the key catalyst for massive capital inflows from Cathie Wood. Both Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and the U.S. CLARITY Act impose compliance requirements on stablecoins. USDC, which has long embraced compliance, has emerged as the biggest beneficiary, aggressively eating into the market share of its competitor, Tether (USDT).

What exactly is Circle?

Circle is a U.S.-based global digital financial technology company and the official issuer of USDC (USD Coin), currently the world's second-largest stablecoin. According to CoinMarketCap data, as of May 20, USDC's market capitalization was $76.8 billion, accounting for 3% of all stablecoins and trailing only USDT.

In May 2026, Circle officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), opening at $69 on its debut. The stock subsequently surged to a peak near $300 before falling to around $50 this February, marking an all-time low.