ARK Invest and Securitize Corp, which is listed on the NYSE, announced the tokenization of the actively managed closed-end interval fund Ark Venture Fund (ARKVX). The tokenized shares will initially be issued on Ethereum, with Securitize responsible for on-chain issuance and investor processes, potentially expanding to other chains in the future. Cathie Wood stated this is a realization of the judgment that "capital markets are evolving, even revolutionizing" into products.

The fund itself is a SEC-registered interval fund, investing in private and public companies related to disruptive innovation, with holdings subject to change. The announcement specifically mentions OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks; Securitize's product page lists the top ten holdings as of June 30, 2026, including SpaceX at 13.8%, OpenAI at 6.3%, Anthropic at 4.6%, Stripe at 4.4%, Tenstorrent at 3.5%, Ayar Labs at 3.2%, Kalshi at 2.9%, and Replit at 2.6%. The net assets during the same period are approximately $1.3 billion, with about 62% in private equity and 38% in public equity. Class D's net return for the second quarter is 20.35%, and the year-to-date return is 26.71%. The net asset value before the token launch is approximately $60.49 per share.

The on-chain asset is a fund share certificate, not the stocks of OpenAI or SpaceX themselves. Each token corresponds 1:1 to the ARKVX shares held in custody by BNY Mellon, with holdings recorded in the investor's whitelist wallet or platform vault. The minimum investment is $500, and after completing identity and accredited investor verification, payments are made in USDC; a 2% subscription fee is deducted before net asset value settlement. Redemptions will still follow interval fund rules: quarterly repurchases, with a single quarter limit of about 5% of issued shares, with excess distributed proportionally. Some reports indicate that the platform plans to display daily net values and attempt on-chain secondary trading, while the official page still states liquidity will be the same as the original fund's quarterly repurchase.

The relationship between the two parties predates this issuance. In October 2025, ARK made a strategic investment in Securitize, disclosing about $10 million and holding convertible bonds maturing in 2028 with a coupon of 5%; Securitize went public on the NYSE in July that year and has also acted as a transfer agent for tokenized products like BlackRock's BUIDL, collaborating with Apollo, KKR, Hamilton Lane, VanEck, and BNY. In August, ARK applied to the SEC for a share class recorded on a distributed ledger, which could facilitate ATS or peer-to-peer transfers via whitelist wallets.

Mechanically, investors are buying indirect exposure to a private tech basket using stablecoins, while selling shares that have higher thresholds and slower settlements in traditional subscription channels. The event is driven by the issuer repackaging existing SEC products, not breaking down unlisted equity for sale. Funds flow from bank subscription channels to Ethereum block space, custodians, and transfer agents; benefiting are Securitize's issuance and compliance pipeline, Ethereum transaction fees, and ARK's expanded distribution radius, while traditional share holders still face quarterly lock-up periods — tokens do not create new underlying liquidity, only change the method of ownership registration.

Source: Public Information