Ark Invest buys more Circle shares as Mizuho cuts target to $50

Ark Invest bought 220,012 additional Circle shares worth about $13.9 million across ARKK, ARKW and ARKF on July 14, even as Circle faced renewed pressure from Mizuho’s downgrade to Underperform from Neutral and a price-target cut to $50 from $85. Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), had recently rallied after U.S. bank regulator OCC granted final approval for Circle National Trust, but the stock later pulled back to around $62.72 and remained roughly 24% lower over the past month. Mizuho said competition from OpenUSD, launched June 30 by the Open Standard consortium, could weaken Circle’s revenue model by shifting more reserve income to issuers and distributors, with added focus on Circle’s expected August renegotiation with Coinbase. Alongside the Circle purchase, Ark bought about $1.52 million of Block shares and sold roughly $3.15 million of Robinhood stock as part of its portfolio-balancing policy.