Key Highlights
- Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is bringing its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) onchain through a partnership with Securitize.
- Portfolio companies include OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks.
- The tokenized fund will debut on Ethereum, with potential expansion to additional blockchains.
- Following the news, Securitize stock surged up to 15%.
- This initiative comes on the heels of the SEC’s new “innovation exemption” for tokenized securities trading.
Cathie Wood’s investment firm ARK Invest is breaking new ground by bringing one of its key funds to blockchain technology. In a recent announcement, the company revealed plans to tokenize the ARK Venture Fund via a collaboration with Securitize.
Today, weāre bringing the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) onchain with @ARKInvest and making it available on @ethereum.
For the first time, eligible investors can access the tokenized version of ARKās flagship disruptive innovation fund with a minimum investment of $500. pic.twitter.com/J9ME81et8D
ā Securitize (@Securitize) September 24, 2026
This venture fund provides access to emerging private technology firms. Current portfolio holdings feature prominent names such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks.
The digitized fund shares will initially launch on Ethereum’s blockchain network. Both ARK and Securitize indicated that expansion to additional blockchain platforms may occur in the future.
How This Benefits Market Participants
The tokenization process doesn’t alter the nature of the portfolio companies themselves. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic will become directly tradable digital assets on blockchain networks.
Rather, participants acquire a digital token representing their ownership stake in the fund. Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize, outlined the advantages of this approach.
According to Domingo, participants can avoid choosing between competing AI companies. A tokenized investment vehicle provides diversified exposure across several industry leaders simultaneously.
“The underlying assets will still remain private, but the investment of the end users will be liquid,” Domingo said.
Securitize intends to publish a daily net asset value for the fund. Additionally, the platform will enable trading of fund interests on blockchain-powered marketplaces.
The ARK Venture Fund operates as an actively managed, closed-end interval fund structure. Its investment strategy targets both private and publicly traded companies connected to disruptive innovation themes central to ARK’s philosophy.
Market Response to Securitize
Securitize’s stock price climbed as high as 15% in the wake of this announcement. The surge brought the stock to its highest level since going public in June.
Over the preceding week, the stock has nearly doubled in value. This rally gained momentum after a key regulatory development from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC recently unveiled a five-year “innovation exemption” program. This regulatory framework aims to facilitate the trading of certain tokenized securities on purpose-built blockchain trading platforms.
The exemption creates a regulatory pathway for financial institutions to experiment with blockchain-based securities offerings. Regulators have expressed interest in gradually transitioning more market activity to onchain infrastructure.
ARK’s initiative represents part of a growing trend across traditional financial institutions. Asset management companies have increasingly adopted blockchain infrastructure for their products.
Previous tokenization projects primarily concentrated on Treasury securities and money-market instruments. Notable examples include BlackRock’s BUIDL product and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI offering.
Now, asset managers are venturing into equity markets and alternative investments. Research from Citi analysts suggests tokenized securities markets could expand to $5.5 trillion by 2030 in their baseline forecast.
This collaboration marks another chapter in the ongoing relationship between ARK and Securitize. ARK became a strategic investor in Securitize during the previous year.
That initial partnership established a framework for launching additional regulated investment vehicles on blockchain networks. Wood characterized the current ARK Venture Fund tokenization as progress toward their mutual objectives.
“Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice,” Wood said in a statement.
Domingo emphasized that this collaboration demonstrates how traditional investment instruments can transition to modern infrastructure. He framed this development as part of an ongoing strategic vision rather than an isolated initiative.
ARK notes that portfolio composition may evolve over time based on market conditions. The blockchain-based version of ARKVX is anticipated to launch on Ethereum following this announcement.
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