Ark’s Latest Trades

Ark Invest, the asset management firm founded by Cathie Wood and known for publishing its daily trading activity, disclosed purchases of 267,676 shares of Block, worth approximately $21 million, and 20,318 shares of SpaceX, worth roughly $2.3 million, on August 6.

Ark’s exchange-traded funds are required to disclose portfolio trades on a daily basis, giving investors a near-real-time window into where Wood is placing her firm’s capital.

The Block purchase lands across Ark’s flagship funds, which have held the payments company for years as a proxy for both fintech disruption and, more specifically, bitcoin adoption. Similarly, the SpaceX purchase comes roughly two months after the company’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut in June, meaning Ark is very likely buying SPCX shares on long-term conviction.

Why Block Matters to Ark

Block, the company Jack Dorsey renamed from Square in 2021, has been one of Ark’s most closely watched holdings because of its direct exposure to bitcoin. Block has held bitcoin on its corporate balance sheet since 2020, operating a Cash App platform that lets millions of retail users buy and sell BTC seamlessly.

In recent months, it has pushed further into the asset through its Bitkey hardware wallet and its bitcoin mining hardware unit, Proto. In essence, Block offers a way to bet on both consumer fintech adoption and bitcoin’s growing role in everyday payments via a single, publicly traded stock.

Wood has repeatedly put bitcoin forward as a core piece of Ark’s long-term investment thesis, and Block’s business model gives her conviction a direct line to bitcoin’s transaction volume and price rather than relying solely on standalone crypto assets. The fresh $21 million purchase suggests Ark sees value in the company’s shares at current levels, adding to a position the firm has built and trimmed repeatedly over the past several years as the stock has moved with both broader tech sentiment and bitcoin’s price swings.

SpaceX’s New Public Chapter

SpaceX ended its run as one of the world’s most valuable private companies in June, when it debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX in the largest IPO in history, pricing at $135 a share and raising roughly $75 billion at a valuation near $1.8 trillion. Shares briefly pushed the company’s market cap above $2 trillion before pulling back in the weeks after.

That means Ark’s latest addition is no longer the kind of hard-to-access, venture-style stake it once was, as investors, including Ark’s public ETFs, can now buy SpaceX stock the same way they buy Block. The $2.3 million purchase, in that regard, is a small add relative to SpaceX’s mammoth valuation, but it shows Wood continuing to build a position in the stock even after its post-IPO fade.