Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund has secured approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer a tokenized class of fund shares, marking a significant step towards integrating digital assets into traditional finance. This regulatory nod allows for secondary trading of these shares through alternative trading systems (ATS) and other permitted venues, with ownership recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT). The move addresses the existing liquidity constraints of the fund, which invests in private tech companies like OpenAI and SpaceX and previously offered limited quarterly repurchases of only 5% of shares.
The SEC's September 21 order amended an earlier exemptive order, enabling ARK Venture Fund to offer both a national securities exchange-listed class and a separate class of tokenized shares. These tokenized shares can trade on ATS, be quoted via other quotation mediums, or be transferred through peer-to-peer transactions between approved wallets. While the SEC's order does not confirm that trading has already commenced, it stipulates that ARK Venture Fund must prominently disclose its net asset value (NAV) per share daily on its website. It also requires disclosure that secondary market transactions, whether on an exchange, ATS, or via peer-to-peer, might occur at prices above or below NAV.
ARK Investment Management and ARK Venture Fund submitted their application on May 20, 2026, with amendments in June and August. The SEC published notice on August 24, and with no hearing requests filed, granted the exemptions. The ARK Venture Fund, established in 2022, is a continuously offered, non-diversified closed-end management investment company structured as an interval fund. It focuses on long-term capital growth by investing in companies linked to disruptive innovation, such as Anthropic and Figure AI. The fund advocates for democratizing venture capital, with a minimum subscription threshold of just $500 for ordinary investors.
This approval for ARK's tokenized shares is a case-by-case exemption, distinct from a broader, delayed SEC "innovation exemption" framework for tokenized securities. However, it sets a potential precedent for the industry, enabling fund shares to become more liquid and composable assets on-chain. ARK's participation in the tokenization infrastructure is further highlighted by the ARK Venture Fund's $10 million investment in Securitize, an RWA infrastructure platform that provides tokenization services for major asset managers like BlackRock and Apollo. This development signals a deeper convergence between traditional capital markets and on-chain finance, addressing liquidity mismatches prevalent in traditional interval fund structures.
