Ark's 10% fund cap split a $37.4 million Block buy across three ETFs

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought 456,059 shares of Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. on Monday. The stake is valued at about $37.4 million.

Block closed at $82.02, down 1.85%, according to a trading disclosure.

~$21 million August buy followed a 6.15% drop to $79

The buy was divided among three of Ark’s actively managed funds. They are the Ark Innovation ETF, the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF, and the Ark Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF, which trade under the symbols ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF, respectively.

Ark did not pool the purchase into one vehicle. Its disclosures cap any one holding at 10% of a fund, a limit intended to keep its portfolios diversified.

Ark has seen the name Block on tape repeatedly all year. In June, the firm bought 236,759 shares, or about $17.2 million worth, through ARKK.

A smaller deal made in July involved 19,029 shares through ARKW and ARKF at a close of $79.99, worth about $1.52 million.

Monday’s buy seems to be a housekeeping matter against Ark’s own rules. The firm’s ~$21 million Block purchase that month was routine rebalancing rather than a new bullish bet, Cryptopolitan reported in August.

That purchase followed a 6.15% decline to $79. Ark adds to positions that slip below their target weight and prunes those that run too hot.

Cryptopolitan reported that Ark bought Block in the same August session and sold 39,509 shares of Bullish through ARKW.

One crypto-linked stock bought and one sold the same day tracks portfolio weights, not sector conviction.

Cash App brought in $1.97 billion of second-quarter gross profit

Block’s fundamentals gave Ark a reason to keep the stock at target weight. Second-quarter gross profit gained 25% to $3.17 billion from a year ago.

Cash App tallied $1.97 billion and Square $1.16 billion. Operating income, adjusted, was $864 million on a 27% margin.

Adjusted diluted earnings came to $1.02 a share. Block lifted its full-year gross profit forecast to $12.51 billion from $12.33 billion previously, pointing to 21% growth.

Since axing about 40% of staff in February, the company has leaned hard into automation.

In June, Block introduced its Builderbot AI tool. This tool merges ~1,500 pull requests per week, accounting for about 15% of all production code changes across the company.

It said its internal Builderbot tool merged about 1,500 pull requests per week.

Mizuho flagged Block’s operating expenses even after the layoffs. The bank reckoned Block’s adjusted costs would increase from $4.48 billion in the first half of 2026 to $4.56 billion in the second, based on Block’s own guidance.

Mizuho retained an Outperform rating and a $100 price target, while saying it’s unclear if more spending is required to grow Cash App’s active users.

Ark’s Monday trading extended beyond Block (XYZ), purchasing 35,192 shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) valued at about $3.36 million as Circle surged 9.65% to $95.55.

Bernstein last week reiterated an Outperform rating and $140 target on Circle. The stock has soared 52.6% in a month.

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