Cathie Wood's Ark Invest buys $37 million in Bitcoin and payments firm Block. The investment firm bought 456,059 Block shares across three ETFs and added $3.4 million in Circle stock. Sep 1, 2026 In brief. * Ark Invest bought about $37.4 million in Block shares Monday. * The firm divided the 456,059 shares among its ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF funds. * Ark also bought roughly $3.4 million in Circle shares. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest bought $37.4 million in Jack Dorsey-led Block Inc. shares Monday, spreading the purchase across three actively managed exchange-traded funds. Ark bought 456,059 shares of Block, which trades under the ticker XYZ, according to a trading notification from the investment firm. The firm allocated 191,732 shares, worth about $15.7 million, to its flagship ARK Innovation ETF. The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired 88,065 shares valued at roughly $7.2 million, while the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF added 176,262 shares worth about $14.5 million. Block shares closed down 3.23% Monday at $80.20. Dorsey, a long-time Bitcoin proponent, co-founded Block in 2009. Originally called Square Inc, the company operates the Square merchant platform, Bitcoin and financial app Cash App, and develops Bitcoin mining hardware. The purchase followed Block's second-quarter earnings report. The company posted $3.17 billion in gross profit, up 25% from a year earlier, and raised its 2026 gross-profit forecast to $12.51 billion. That would represent 21% annual growth, according to Block's shareholder letter. Block also reported $447 million in operating income and $864 million in adjusted operating income for the quarter. The company credited artificial intelligence with helping write and review nearly all its production code changes in June. Those results followed a February restructuring that cut Block's workforce by more than 40%, from over 10,000 employees to fewer than 6,000. Ark also bought 35,192 shares of USDC stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group through its fintech fund. The stake was worth about $3.36 million as Circle closed Monday at $95.55, up 9.65%. Ark also sold shares of Palantir, Shopify, Roblox, AMD, and Tempus AI on the same day but did not say the sales financed its Block or Circle purchases. Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Block will open its Cash App Score to lenders with Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform as partner. Cash App Score, the real-time credit signal at the center of how Block manages its consumer lending portfolio, will be distributed to lenders through Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, expanding responsible credit access without requiring consumers to link accounts or share new credentials DISTRIBUTED-WORKFORCE/OAKLAND, Calif.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) today announced that it will open the Cash App Score to external lenders for the first time, with Nova Credit as a distribution partner. The partnership will make Cash App's proprietary, cash flow-based credit score available to lenders through Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, embedding it directly into the underwriting workflows lenders already use, with no new consumer credentialing required. Cash App Score, which has begun rolling out to customers, draws on millions of real-time, first-party signals from across the Cash App ecosystem, including spending, saving, repayment behavior, paycheck deposits, and peer-to-peer activity, to form a detailed, near real-time picture of a person's financial health. And, unlike traditional credit scores, Cash App Score doesn't look back exclusively at credit history - instead it reflects a customer's broader financial behavior including historical and current activities, reflecting changes in near real-time. Within Cash App, customers can see their score on the Money Tab, understand what drives it, and take concrete steps to improve it. Early engagement is strong - within 30 days, 55[1] percent of customers return to check their score. Cash App customers will set their own preferences for whether and how their score will be shared with third-party lending partners, with Cash App managing notifications and consent directly and no third-party logins required. "At Block, we believe people should be able to use their own financial history to unlock opportunity, on their terms," said Juan Hernandez, Head of Credit and Underwriting at Block. "We built Cash App Score to see the financial activity of millions of people the traditional credit system misses, and it's now the same technology at the center of how we manage credit across Block, where we use it to understand risk in near real-time. Partnering with Nova Credit lets us put that capability in the hands of lenders through infrastructure they already trust, so more of those consumers can be reached responsibly, while they stay informed and in control of their data." The technology behind Cash App Score powers underwriting across all of Block's consumer lending products. In Cash App Borrow, where the technology has been running longest, it approves 38 percent more customers at the same loss rate compared with traditional credit scores[1]. Roughly 70 percent of active Borrow customers have FICO scores below 580, the population conventional models underserve, at a target repayment rate. Block's analysis across additional categories indicates the potential to approve 30 percent more auto loans and 28 percent more credit card applications at comparable loss rates versus traditional methods. The technology does more than assess individual creditworthiness - it tracks consumer financial health in aggregate and in near real-time, giving Block a continuous read on how macroeconomic conditions are affecting its portfolio. This allows Block to model scenarios and adjust credit policy dynamically rather than relying on lagging indicators. For lenders, this means the Cash App Score is not a static signal - it is built on infrastructure that continuously adapts to economic conditions, the same infrastructure Block relies on to manage its own portfolio. A richer view for lenders, across verticals Through Nova Credit's network, lenders will be able to incorporate the Cash App Score into their underwriting across verticals including credit cards, auto lending, device financing, personal lending and tenant screening, all areas where Cash App does not compete, delivered through the same Cash Flow Intelligence Platform they rely on today. The Cash App Score will provide lenders with a comprehensive, near real-time view of a consumer's ability to pay. Used alongside Nova Credit's Cash Atlas, lenders will gain an additional layer of cash flow context through a single integration. Beyond distribution, Nova Credit brings deep experience deploying cash flow-based scores, along with the consumer-reporting infrastructure, FCRA-compliance framework, and established lender network that together turn a powerful score into a solution lenders can adopt with confidence. "By bringing the Cash App Score into Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, we're giving lenders a unique tool to develop a richer, near real-time view of tens of millions of credit-seeking Americans," said Misha Esipov, Co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit. "Our joint goal is to help Americans put their best financial foot forward, using the apps they already rely on every day." Nova Credit and Block will share more about the partnership at the Cash Flow Intelligence Summit, the annual gathering of consumer lending leaders, in New York City on September 10, 2026. Apply to attend. About Block Block builds technology to increase access to the global economy. Each of its brands unlocks different aspects of the economy for more people. Square makes commerce and financial services accessible to sellers. Cash App is the easy way to spend, send, and store money. Afterpay is transforming the way customers manage their spending over time. TIDAL is a music platform that empowers artists to thrive as entrepreneurs. Bitkey is a simple self-custody wallet built for bitcoin. Proto is a suite of bitcoin mining products and services. Together, Crypto Reporter is helping build a financial system that is open to everyone. Block.xyz About Nova Credit Nova Credit is the industry's leading cash flow intelligence platform, enabling businesses to unlock the power of cash flow data in how they operate. The company leverages its industry-leading data infrastructure, intelligence layer, and FCRA-compliance to boost underwriting approvals, fight fraud, drive responsible growth, and more. Nova Credit supports over 7,000 businesses including organizations such as Chase, HSBC, SoFi, AppFolio, and Yardi, with a growing suite of products. Learn more at www.novacredit.com. | __________________________ | | [1] | / | Block internal data | | [2] | / | Block's Modern Approach to Credit |

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has again increased its stake in Block Inc., (NYSE: XYZ), the payments and financial services company led by Jack Dorsey, continuing