Finance Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has announced a partnership with Securitize to tokenize its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), which includes stakes in high-profile tech companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. This initiative marks a significant step as Wall Street asset managers increasingly adopt blockchain technology for investment products.
The ARK Venture Fund is bringing exposure to sought-after private tech companies onchain through Securitize, first on Ethereum then potentially expanding to other chains.
Through this collaboration, ARKVX will enable investors to access a portfolio that includes both private and public entities like Stripe and Databricks. The tokenization will utilize Securitize's infrastructure, which will manage the on-chain issuance and enhance the investor experience.
The fund will initially be available on the Ethereum blockchain, priced at ETH$2,665.78, with plans to extend to additional networks in the future. "Making the ARK Venture Fund available on-chain is a natural extension of our mission to democratize access to technologically enabled disruptive innovation," stated Cathie Wood, ARK's founder and CEO.
According to Securitize's CEO, Carlos Domingo, this initiative will provide investors with diversified exposure to some of the most sought-after private tech firms. "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," Domingo remarked during an interview with CoinDesk TV.
ARK is joining a growing list of Wall Street firms exploring tokenization, as many asset managers are keen to move traditional financial products onto blockchain platforms. Previous projects, such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI funds, initially focused on U.S. Treasuries and money-market products, but there is now a shift towards equities and private markets. Analysts at Citi have predicted that the market for tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
The recent regulatory environment has also been favorable, with the Securities and Exchange Commission introducing a five-year "innovation exemption" that permits certain tokenized U.S. stocks to be traded on specially designed on-chain platforms. This framework allows financial institutions to explore blockchain-based securities further as regulators work to integrate more of the financial market into the blockchain ecosystem.
ARKVX is classified as an actively managed interval fund, investing in both private and publicly traded companies. It’s important to note that tokenizing the fund does not place individual company shares on-chain or allow for their free trading; rather, investors will receive a blockchain-based representation of their investment in the fund.
“The underlying assets will still remain private, but the investment of the end users will be liquid,” Domingo added. Securitize also intends to provide a daily net asset value and facilitate trading of fund interests on blockchain-based markets.
This partnership builds on the existing relationship between ARK and Securitize, which began with ARK's strategic investment in Securitize last year, aimed at bringing more regulated investment products onto blockchain platforms.