Cathie Wood's ARK teams with Securitize to tokenize venture fund with Open
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Summary
Asset manager ARK Invest is tokenizing its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) by partnering with Securitize, a tokenization firm. The fund offers eligible investors access to both private and public companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. Securitize will handle the onchain issuance and investor experience, with the initial tokenization launching on Ethereum.
Why it matters
ARK's move to put the venture fund on blockchain rails aims to democratize access to cutting-edge technological companies and diversify investor exposure to leading private tech firms. This development is part of a broader Wall Street trend toward tokenizing traditional investment products, supported by recent regulatory advancements such as the SEC's innovation exemption that facilitates onchain trading of tokenized securities.
Key context
The ARK Venture Fund is an actively managed interval fund that invests in a mix of private and publicly traded companies. Tokenizing the fund does not place the underlying company shares themselves onchain or make them freely tradable; rather, investors hold blockchain-based representations of their fund interests. Securitize will also provide daily net asset values and enable trading of fund interests on blockchain markets. ARK previously made a strategic investment in Securitize last year.
Key numbers and entities
The entities involved are ARK Invest and Securitize (SECZ). The fund includes stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. No specific financial figures for the fund or token issuance were provided. Citi analysts project tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030. The fund will initially launch on the Ethereum blockchain.
What remains unclear
The source does not specify eligibility criteria for investors, the timing or details of token trading markets beyond Ethereum, or exact terms of the tokenized fund interests. It also does not clarify how liquidity or regulatory compliance will be managed as the product scales.