Cathie Wood's ARK tokenizes venture fund with OpenAI and Anthropic stakes on Ethereum
ARK Venture Fund moves onchain through Securitize
ARK Invest, the asset manager founded by Cathie Wood, is tokenizing its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) together with tokenization firm Securitize (SECZ). The fund holds stakes in private and public companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks. Tokenizing means issuing a digital token on a blockchain, a shared public record, to represent an investment.
The tokenized interests will be issued using Securitize's infrastructure, with the firm handling onchain issuance and the investor experience. ARKVX will first be available on Ethereum, a public blockchain, and other networks could follow, the companies said.
What the deal covers
- ARKVX is an actively managed interval fund that invests across private and publicly traded companies.
- Securitize will handle the onchain issuance and the investor experience.
- The tokenized interests launch first on Ethereum, with other networks potentially following.
- The deal builds on ARK's strategic investment in Securitize last year.
What ARK and Securitize said
Wood, ARK's founder, CEO and chief investment officer, said in a statement: "Making the ARK Venture Fund available onchain is a natural extension of our mission to democratize access to technologically enabled disruptive innovation."
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo highlighted the appeal of a diversified pool of private tech companies. "If you don't know whether OpenAI or Anthropic are gonna win the AI race, here you get both of them in a diversified pool," he told CoinDesk TV. He added: "The underlying assets will still remain private, but the investment of the end users will be liquid."
How the tokenized fund works
Tokenizing ARKVX does not put its underlying companies on a blockchain or make their shares freely tradable. Investors instead receive a blockchain-based representation of their interest in the fund.
Securitize also plans to provide a daily net asset value, a measure of the fund's per-share value, and to enable the fund interests to trade on blockchain-based markets.
Wall Street's tokenization push and the SEC exemption
ARK is joining a roster of Wall Street firms moving into tokenization as asset managers look to put traditional financial products on blockchain rails. Early attempts, such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI funds, centered on U.S. Treasuries and money-market products, but firms are now pushing into equities and private markets. Citi analysts projected that tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030 as their base case.
The sector also received a regulatory boost last week, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled a five-year "innovation exemption." It allows certain tokenized U.S. stocks to trade on specially designed onchain venues, with the goal of making tokenized stock trading easier on blockchain-based markets.
Securitize's shares jumped as much as 15% after the ARK news, reaching a fresh high since the firm's public debut in June. The stock has nearly doubled in the week since the SEC rolled out the exemption.
What remains open after the announcement
The companies said other blockchain networks could follow Ethereum, but the announcement did not name specific chains or give a timeline. Securitize's daily net asset value reporting and blockchain-based trading for the fund interests were described as plans rather than live features.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.