Cathie Wood's Ark Invest is betting heavily on Jack Dorsey after snapping up $62.6 million in shares of Block and dumping Twitter

• Cathie Wood's Ark Invest funds bought almost 550,000 shares in Block after the stock slid almost 11% Wednesday.
• Ark has bet big on Block CEO Jack Dorsey, who has ambitions to move the company into crypto.

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest loaded up on more than $62 million worth of Block shares Wednesday, as the Jack Dorsey-led company's stock was dragged down by a gloomy outlook from rival PayPal.

Ark took advantage of a 10.6% slide in Block, which Dorsey is driving to expand beyond digital payments into crypto.

Block, which rebranded from Square in December, fell after fellow payments company PayPal gave disappointing guidance on revenue growth and earnings in its quarterly financial update Wednesday.

The expectation that Block, due to report earnings, will perform similarly below expectations helped weigh on the stock.

But Ark, which already held 6.14 million shares in Block, stepped up its bet on Dorsey and his ambitions for the company.

Three Ark funds — the flagship Ark Innovation, Ark Next Generation Internet and Ark Fintech Innovation — collectively bought 549,034 shares in Block, according to a trade notification. The shares are worth about $62.6 million at Wednesday's closing price of $114.04.

At the same time, the Ark Fintech Innovation fund shed 158,126 PayPal shares worth almost $21 million.

The Cathie Wood-led firm also ditched 722,327 shares in Twitter, worth almost $26.5 million at the closing price of $36.51.

Just in December, it bought 1 million of the social media company's shares, buying the dip after Dorsey stepped down as Twitter's CEO to focus on Block and bitcoin.

Wood, known for her successful stock picks in the volatile markets of 2020, has defended Ark's focus on early-development tech companies as her funds struggle.