Cathie Wood’s ARK Sells Twist, Buys Circle Stock

Lead paragraph

On March 25, 2026 Investing.com reported that Cathie Wood’s ARK executed a reallocation that removed Twist Bioscience from its reported holdings and initiated a position in Circle Internet Financial. The trade was logged in ARK’s daily trading update and picked up by market data services the same day, signaling a tactical move inside the firm’s high-conviction ETFs. The action comes after a period of weakening performance for several small-cap biotech names and stronger investor interest in payments and fintech infrastructure stocks in early 2026. While ARK’s trades are routine and often small relative to total assets under management, they act as an immediately visible signal to investors and can trigger short-term volatility in the affected securities.

Context

ARK Invest has a long-standing public posture of transparent, frequent trading disclosures; the firm’s daily trade posts and quarterly 13F filings make its repositionings highly visible to market participants. That transparency makes a small sale or purchase more impactful than its absolute size: even modest trades are widely circulated, feeding into momentum-driven flows. On March 25, 2026, Investing.com (source: https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/cathie-woods-ark-sells-twist-bioscience-and-buys-circle-internet-stock-93CH-4578941) reported that ARK sold its remaining reported stake in Twist Bioscience and purchased shares of Circle Internet, underscoring a sector rotation from biotech to fintech exposure within at least one ARK strategy.

The timing follows broader market dynamics. Through the first quarter of 2026, fintech equities outperformed the small-cap biotech cohort on average, driven by reacceleration in payments volumes and a compressed rate volatility environment that reduced discount-rate pressure on nearer-term cash flows. By contrast, synthetic biology and specialty sequencing equipment providers have faced renewed capital expenditure scrutiny and pricing pressure. Those relative performance differentials—one of the drivers ARK cited in previous investor notes when reweighting portfolios—help explain the direction of the trade.

From a regulatory and disclosure perspective, these daily trade updates precede the quarterly 13F filings that provide a snapshot of long U.S.-listed equity positions. ARK’s trade on March 25 will appear in subsequent public filings and will be reconciled with ARK’s ETF-level disclosures. Investors who monitor these updates treat them as high-frequency signalling tools, not as long-term commitment statements; accordingly, the market response often compresses within hours of the disclosure.

Data Deep Dive

Three specific datapoints frame the immediate significance of this move: 1) the trade report date — March 25, 2026 (Investing.com), 2) the security identifiers — Twist Bioscience (TWST) and Circle Internet Financial (CRCL) as reported by the outlet, and 3) short-term price reactions documented in market feeds the same day. The Investing.com article published on March 25 provides the primary attribution for the trade, and real-time level-1 feeds showed a single-session price swing for both tickers following the disclosure. Short-term single-session moves of 2–6% are common when a high-profile manager like ARK initiates or closes a visible position.

For context, consider comparative performance over the prior 12 months to the trade date: small-cap biotech indices had underperformed the Nasdaq Composite by several hundred basis points, while a fintech-focused basket had outperformed by a similar margin. That divergence helps explain the reallocation rationale—shifting from a subperforming sector to one with stronger recent momentum. Sources for cross-checks include exchange-level price histories and sector indices maintained by major data vendors; ARK’s own daily trade summaries provide the specific transaction tags for later verification in the 13F.

Another numeric lens is the relative portfolio weight change implied by the trade. Even when purchases are modest (often less than 0.5% of an ETF’s net asset value), they can change headline exposures. Institutional modelers who reconstruct ARK’s ETF holdings from daily trade disclosures estimate that single-stock initiations typically alter portfolio weights by 0.05%–0.4% per ETF, depending on fund size. That range is consistent with historical ARK activity noted in public aggregate analyses of ARK trades across 2024–2025.

Sector Implications

The micro-level reallocation from a company in synthetic biology to a payments/fintech operator has broader sector implications. For the biotech supply chain, repeated small exits by headline active managers increase the cost of capital by reducing the natural pool of buy-side demand; that can widen bid-ask spreads and increase volatility for thinly traded names. Twist Bioscience and peers operate in a narrow market where institutional participation matters materially for price discovery.

For fintech and payments firms such as Circle Internet, visible inflows—even modest ones—from ARK can accelerate momentum, attracting algorithmic and retail flows that chase headline ownership changes. Circle’s business model centers on crypto-enabled payments and dollar-pegged stablecoin infrastructure; these areas have seen episodic investor enthusiasm tied to regulatory clarity cycles. The ARK purchase on March 25, 2026 highlights increased investor tolerance for regulated fintech exposure relative to high-variance biotech projects.

Comparatively, the trade underscores a longer-term thematic shift some managers are undertaking: from long-duration technology plays and speculative biotech bets toward fintech and enterprise software with nearer-term revenue visibility. That broader reallocation pattern was observable across multiple active managers by late 2025 and into 2026, with relative flows favoring fintech by mid-single-digit percentage points in aggregate across the asset-management cohort.

Risk Assessment

The trade should not be viewed in isolation as a durable endorsement or rejection of either company. Short-term trades by highly visible funds are noisy signals: they are informative about manager intent and thematic emphasis, but not definitive on fundamental valuation. Twist Bioscience may still retain structural appeal tied to unique synthetic biology IP, while Circle’s regulatory and macro exposure carries idiosyncratic execution risk. Investors should therefore separate signal from noise: a headline trade can move prices, but fundamentals determine long-term returns.

Another risk to consider is liquidity sensitivity. Both Twist and Circle have periods of thin depth relative to large-cap benchmarks; a visible client-driven purchase or sale can temporarily distort spreads and yield transient price moves that reverse once the trade information is fully absorbed. Lastly, performance comparisons must account for differing duration and risk profiles: biotech valuations are more binary and path-dependent, while fintech revenues are more continuous and rate-sensitive.

Fazen Capital Perspective

Fazen Capital views the March 25 trade as a tactical expression of ARK’s ongoing rotation preferences rather than a strategic repudiation of synthetic biology. The firm’s daily trading tendency amplifies short-term market reactions, but it also provides frequent data points for discerning investors. In a contrarian reading, small exits from biotech by high-profile managers can create buying opportunities for long-term allocators who rate the secular growth potential of sequencing and synthetic biology platforms; likewise, ARK’s entry into Circle may overpay for near-term excitement if macro or regulatory volatility reasserts itself. We recommend that institutional investors use high-frequency trade disclosures as a set of signals to inform, not dictate, fundamental re-underwriting: they are a flow indicator, not a replacement for due diligence. For institutional readers seeking analytics on trade-flow effects and position reconstruction, see our model repository and thematic research hub at topic.

Outlook

The immediate outlook for the affected names will be determined by company-level catalysts and macro risk appetite. For Twist Bioscience, near-term catalysts include quarterly revenue updates and any capital-raising announcements; for Circle Internet, regulatory commentary around stablecoins and payments volumes will be decisive. Market participants should watch the next two weeks of volume and options activity for signs of whether the ARK trade catalyzes sustained momentum or proves transitory.

From a calendar perspective, ARK’s publicly visible trades frequently presage broader thematic shifts when followed by similar moves from peer managers. If additional active managers reweight toward fintech and away from speculative biotech through the spring of 2026, price discovery could broaden, reducing volatility in the long run. Institutional investors should monitor subsequent 13F disclosures and ETF-level flows for confirmed directional trends.

Bottom Line

Cathie Wood’s ARK sold its reported Twist Bioscience stake and added Circle Internet on March 25, 2026, a tactical rotation that reflects broader stylistic shifts within active management. Monitor 13F filings and ETF flows for confirmation before extrapolating the move into a durable sector repricing.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

FAQ

Q: Does ARK’s trade on March 25 mean ARK has lost conviction in synthetic biology?

A: Not necessarily. ARK’s daily disclosures capture tactical reweighting; they reflect both conviction adjustments and liquidity management. A sale can signal either reduced conviction or a desire to free cash for higher-priority ideas. Historical ARK behavior shows both reversible and durable reallocations.

Q: How should institutional investors interpret headline trades by high-profile active managers?

A: Treat them as high-frequency flow signals rather than fundamental assessments. Headline trades can create short-term price moves; for long-term allocations, reconcile these signals with company fundamentals, liquidity analysis, and portfolio construction constraints. For tools to convert trade disclosures into portfolio-impact metrics, consult our analytics platform at topic.