ARK Invest is bringing its $1.3 billion ARK Venture Fund, known as ARKVX, onto Ethereum through tokenization firm Securitize, marking the first time the asset manager has placed one of its funds on blockchain infrastructure. The offering would give eligible purchasers access to digital fund shares issued on Ethereum while keeping ARKVX’s existing actively managed venture strategy intact.
Securitize will provide the issuance and access infrastructure for the tokenized shares. ARK Invest said the structure is intended to move the fund’s ownership and transfer processes onto blockchain rails rather than create a separate portfolio of crypto assets. ARKVX will continue to hold a changing mix of public and private technology companies selected by ARK’s management team.
The move brings an established venture-style interval fund into a market increasingly focused on tokenized securities and money-market products. Unlike a cryptocurrency that can generally trade around the clock, tokenized fund shares remain subject to eligibility requirements, transfer restrictions and the fund’s own redemption terms.
ARKVX holds major private technology names
ARKVX gives purchasers exposure to companies that are often difficult to access through public markets. ARK lists OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks among the fund’s holdings, alongside publicly traded technology businesses. Its portfolio can change as ARK buys, sells or revalues positions.
The fund reported approximately $1.3 billion in net assets under management on its website. Its portfolio structure combines private-company investments, which may take years to reach a public listing or acquisition, with listed equities that can be traded more readily.
That mix makes the tokenization effort more complex than placing a cash-like fund on a blockchain. A token can represent ownership of a fund, but it does not make the underlying private-company stakes liquid. The fund’s asset values, dealing schedule and redemption process continue to depend on the terms governing ARKVX and the valuation of its underlying investments.
ARKVX operates as an interval fund, a structure that generally offers repurchase opportunities at set intervals rather than allowing daily cash withdrawals. Purchasers of the onchain version would therefore need to consider the fund’s scheduled liquidity windows rather than assume Ethereum-based ownership creates instant redemption rights.
Partnership follows ARK’s Securitize investment
The launch extends a relationship established in October 2025, when ARK Invest made a strategic investment in Securitize. Cathie Wood, ARK Invest’s founder and chief executive officer, has long focused the firm’s funds on disruptive technology themes, while Carlos Domingo, Securitize’s co-founder and chief executive officer, has built the company around regulated digital securities infrastructure.
Securitize had already attracted backing from major financial and digital-asset firms before the ARK transaction. In 2025, the company pursued a public listing through a proposed $1.25 billion special purpose acquisition company deal. Materials related to that transaction listed ARK Invest, BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Hamilton Lane, Jump Crypto and Morgan Stanley Investment Management among Securitize’s equity holders.
The ARKVX rollout gives that relationship a more concrete product outcome: Securitize is becoming part of the operating infrastructure for an ARK-managed fund, rather than simply remaining a portfolio company or strategic partner.
For ARK, the structure could create a distribution channel for qualified participants who are prepared to hold a regulated security through a blockchain wallet. For Securitize, managing the issuance of a fund with more than $1 billion in net assets would add a recognizable venture-investing product to a tokenization business that has largely been associated with private-market securities and tokenized funds.
Tokenization expands beyond cash-management products
Tokenized funds have grown most visibly in short-duration Treasury and cash-management strategies, where underlying assets are relatively simple to value and liquidity is easier to manage. BlackRock’s tokenized money-market fund, BUIDL, surpassed $1.7 billion in value before the firm expanded the product to Solana in September, according to BlackRock.
ARKVX takes a different route by applying tokenization to a fund with exposure to venture-backed companies. The approach does not alter the economic uncertainty attached to private technology valuations, but it could streamline recordkeeping, ownership transfers and settlement for participants permitted to hold the fund.
Ethereum’s role is also distinct from the fund’s investment strategy. The network would serve as the ledger for tokenized shares, while ARK’s portfolio managers would continue to make decisions about holdings such as OpenAI, Stripe and other technology companies. In practical terms, a blockchain transaction records an interest in the fund; it does not provide direct ownership of each company held by the fund.
Access remains limited by fund rules
The offering is intended for eligible purchasers, and participation will require the identity checks and other compliance processes associated with regulated private and interval-fund products. Wallet ownership alone does not confer access.
Prospective holders also face the usual operational risks associated with blockchain-based securities. They need to use the official access channels and verify contract information provided by the fund and Securitize before authorizing a transaction. Sending stablecoins or other assets to an unverified address would not establish ownership in ARKVX.
The launch places ARK’s venture strategy alongside the growing number of financial products using public blockchain networks for fund administration and ownership records. Its impact will depend less on Ethereum’s transaction speed than on whether regulated tokenized shares can make a traditionally constrained private-and-public technology fund easier to distribute without changing the liquidity limits embedded in its structure.
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