ARKF Clears the Line — on the Strength of Its Non-Financial Holdings
ARKF, ARK's Blockchain & Fintech fund, has the highest weight-averaged Blitz Index score of any ARK fund: 65.7. Split the fund by what its holdings actually do and the average comes apart. The financial companies average 58.9. The commerce and platform companies average above 70.
The split
We sorted every ARKF holding into three groups by its primary business. The grouping is ours, not ARK's.
| Group | Holdings | Share of ARKF | Scored weight | Weighted avg. score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial — payments, brokerage, crypto, lending, stablecoins | 17 | 45.3% | 26.4% | 58.9 |
| Commerce platforms with payment arms — Shopify, MercadoLibre, Sea | 3 | 12.8% | 12.8% | 69.8 |
| Other platforms & infrastructure — Meta, Palantir, NVIDIA, Airbnb and others | 12 | 30.9% | 23.6% | 71.0 |
| Private & fund positions (OpenAI, bitcoin holdco, Kalshi, staking ETFs, cash) | 7 | 11.0% | — | — |
ARKF clears 65 because 58% of its scored weight sits in companies that are not, at their core, financial businesses. The financial group on its own would sit about six points below the line.
The financial names, one by one
| Company | ARKF weight | Score | What the scorecard says moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block (XYZ) | 8.64% | Gate failed — G2 | — |
| Circle (CRCL) | 6.12% | 52 C | >95% of revenue is interest on reserves |
| Coinbase (COIN) | 5.14% | 61 B | Record volume share in a shrinking market |
| Robinhood (HOOD) | 4.95% | 61 B | Customers +7%, assets +67% |
| Toast (TOST) | 4.41% | 60 B | GPV +22%, ARR +25%; profit rides on the spread |
| SoFi (SOFI) | 2.55% | 62 B | Elite growth, discounted trust |
| Nu Holdings (NU) | 1.80% | 65 B | ROE 33%; the credit cycle watches |
| Klarna (KLAR) | 1.43% | 56 C | Growth runs through credit expansion |
| Bitmine (BMNR), Bullish (BLSH) | 3.99% | Gate failed — G2 | — |
| Seven names not yet scored (Adyen, Futu, Securitize, eToro, Kaspi, PayPay, Canton) | 6.27% | — | — |
Only one financial holding — Nu Holdings, exactly at 65 — reaches the line.
Why financial businesses stall in the high 50s
The scorecards do not say these businesses are slow. Several are growing very fast. They say something more specific: in finance, the growth the company controls and the revenue the cycle controls are different numbers, and the ruler reads the second.
Rates. Circle is the starkest case. USDC in circulation rose 67% in eighteen months (SEC-filed), and on-chain volume reached $14.8T in a quarter. But more than 95% of revenue is reserve interest — circulation multiplied by a yield. The company's own annual report quantifies the exposure: a 90-basis-point fall in the average yield cost $442.1M of revenue. Revenue stood still in the first half of 2026 while circulation grew. The scorecard deducts 4 points for revenue quality and caps growth at 7 of 10 for exactly that reason.
Crypto cycles. Coinbase's scorecard describes the score as essentially a function of cycle position. Its estimated annual trajectory runs 67 in 2021, 58 in the 2022 bear market, 64 in the 2024 recovery, and 61 today — with TTM revenue down 10.4% even as global spot share hit a record 10.3%. Winning share in a shrinking arena scores as a B, not as a blitz.
Credit cycles. Nu Holdings (ROE 33%, 39–56% FX-neutral growth across eight quarters) and Klarna (120M shoppers across 1.2M merchants, deposit-funded) both carry scorecard language about the credit cycle. Growth that runs through lending is real, but it can reverse when credit does, and the ruler prices that in.
Distribution economics. Circle pays 60.6% of revenue to the partners who distribute USDC. Toast's operating turnaround, per its scorecard, rides on the payments spread rather than the gross. In both cases the moat section's gross-margin item stops short of software-style economics.
Why the other two groups score higher
The commerce platforms — Shopify (71), MercadoLibre (70), Sea (63) — all run payment businesses, but their scores rest on commerce networks and distribution. MercadoLibre's scorecard leads with thirty straight quarters above 30% growth. The third group — Meta (78), NVIDIA (87), Airbnb (75), DoorDash (68), Palantir (65), Roblox (64), AMD (62), Cloudflare (62), CrowdStrike (60) — includes several of the highest scores in our entire universe. These holdings are not exposed to the reserve yield or the crypto tape in the same way, and their moat sections score accordingly.
What this means for reading ARKF's number
ARKF's 65.7 is accurate. It is also a blend. A reader who wants the Blitz Index's view of fintech specifically should look at the financial group's 58.9 — and at the 12.6% of the fund in financial gate failures, led by Block, ARKF's largest holding.
The boundary
The three-way grouping is a judgment call. Shopify, MercadoLibre and Sea all run substantial payment operations and could be classified as financial; moving them would raise the financial group's average. Scores measure business quality on one day's scorecards and say nothing about price. Cyclical scores move with the cycle — which is precisely why none of this is a signal.
BlitzLab scores businesses against a scholar's standard — not investment advice. No price targets, no buy/sell recommendations. Holdings come from ARK Invest's daily public disclosures; BlitzLab is not affiliated with ARK Invest and this research is not endorsed by them. Company figures are as labeled on each scorecard.
Sources
- BlitzLab, "ARKF's Holdings, Graded." — https://blitzlab.app/ark/arkf/ — holdings as of 11/04/2026 — checked 2026-11-05
- BlitzLab, "Circle — Blitz Index 52 (C)" — https://blitzlab.app/companies/crcl/ — Oct 2026 — checked 2026-11-05
- BlitzLab, "Coinbase — Blitz Index 61 (B)" — https://blitzlab.app/companies/coin/ — Oct 2026 — checked 2026-11-05
- BlitzLab, "All Company Scores" (taglines for HOOD, TOST, SOFI, NU, KLAR, MELI) — https://blitzlab.app/companies/ — checked 2026-11-05