ARK Invest Tokenizes $1.3 Billion Venture Fund on Ethereum

ARK Invest is moving its $1.3 billion venture fund onto the Ethereum blockchain, the first time Cathie Wood's asset manager has tokenized one of its own funds. Eligible investors will access the ARK Venture Fund through Securitize, a tokenization platform in which ARK took a strategic stake last year.

The actively managed fund holds positions in private and public technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks. Under the arrangement announced Sept. 24, Securitize will handle onchain issuance of fund interests and the investor experience, while ARK continues to make all portfolio decisions. The tokenized interests will debut on Ethereum, and the companies indicated that expansion to other blockchains may follow.

Wood, ARK's founder and chief executive officer, framed the move as a test of the firm's long-standing thesis that blockchain technology will reshape capital markets. "Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice," she said in a statement.

What Changes — and What Doesn't

The tokenization does not alter the fund's underlying investment strategy or its operational structure. ARKVX remains a continuously offered, closed-end interval fund that limits investor exits to periodic repurchase offers. The fund offers quarterly repurchases for up to 5% of outstanding shares at net asset value, and requests can exceed that amount, according to its disclosures. Shares are unlisted, and no secondary market is expected to develop.

Securitize emphasized that buying into ARKVX gives investors exposure to the entire portfolio rather than direct ownership in any single holding. An investment in the fund "does not give a holder shares in OpenAI or any other named company," the company said in its announcement.

The minimum investment for the tokenized version is $500. Securitize said it intends to publish daily net asset valuations for the fund and facilitate trading of fund interests across blockchain-native marketplaces.

The Regulatory Green Light

The launch follows a Sept. 21 order from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that permits ARK to offer a tokenized share class under specified conditions. The amended order allows a class that may trade on one or more registered alternative trading systems, plus a separate class that could seek a listing on a national securities exchange. The permission establishes the legal structure for those classes but does not mean shares are already trading in any secondary market.

ARK's application to the SEC describes how purchases from the fund would work. An investor buying directly from ARK would pay the applicable share class's net asset value plus any sales or distribution charge. The filing also notes that costs specific to a tokenized class could include transfer-agent charges and blockchain transaction fees.

The SEC order is separate from the regulator's recent five-year conditional relief allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized versions of certain U.S.-listed stocks. ARK's venture fund received its amended order through an Investment Company Act application covering the fund's share classes.

Securitize Shares Surge

Securitize shares rallied as much as 15% on the partnership announcement, pushing the stock to new highs since its public market debut. The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ, has seen its equity value roughly double over the preceding seven days.

Carlos Domingo, Securitize's co-founder and chief executive officer, said the project extends the companies' existing relationship. ARK made a strategic investment in Securitize in October 2025, and the two firms said at the time they would collaborate on regulated tokenized investment products. ARK Venture Fund also held Securitize equity and a $10 million convertible note, according to ARK's SEC filing.

"ARK's strategic investment reflected a shared belief that tokenization can transform capital markets," Domingo said. "This project turns that conviction into an actual product."

Securitize has been pursuing its own expansion. In late 2025, the company agreed to combine with a Cantor Fitzgerald-backed special purpose acquisition company, alongside a planned $225 million private investment. The deal valued the tokenization platform at roughly $1.25 billion and counted ARK Invest, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, Jump Crypto and Morgan Stanley Investment Management among its existing backers.

A Widening Institutional Push

The ARK move is part of a broader push by institutional asset managers to bring traditional financial products onto blockchain rails. Earlier tokenization projects concentrated on Treasury securities and money market funds, with BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI among the most prominent examples. The industry is now extending into equity markets and private capital.

Citi analysts have projected that tokenized securities markets could reach $5.5 trillion in value by 2030 under a baseline scenario. The SEC's recent actions, including the innovation exemption framework and the ARK order, suggest regulators are creating pathways for that migration.

For ARK, the tokenization applies the firm's disruptive innovation thesis to both sides of the fund: the companies it backs and the infrastructure investors use to own it. Wood described the onchain fund as a natural extension of the firm's goal of democratizing access to disruptive innovation.

"Tokenization has the potential to fundamentally change how investors access and participate in public and private financial markets," she said. "Bringing the ARK Venture Fund onchain is a natural extension of our goal to democratize access to disruptive innovation."

The fund's holdings may change as managers buy and sell assets, ARK noted. Because the portfolio mixes private and public companies, its performance reflects more than its best-known positions. Tokenization changes the ownership record and access route, but not the fund's exit terms or its underlying investment strategy — a distinction investors weighing a $500 minimum entry should keep in mind.