- ARK Invest is tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund, whose portfolio includes stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks, using infrastructure from Securitize. The tokenized interests launch on Ethereum first, quoted at $2,664.98, with other networks potentially following.
- Securitize shares rose as much as 15% on the announcement to a fresh high since its June public debut, and have nearly doubled in a week since the SEC introduced a five-year innovation exemption allowing certain tokenized US stocks to trade on purpose-built onchain venues.
- Tokenization does not put the underlying companies onchain or make their shares tradable. Investors receive a blockchain-based representation of their interest in the fund, an actively managed interval fund investing across private and public companies. Securitize plans to provide a daily net asset value and enable the interests to trade on blockchain-based markets.
- ARK made a strategic investment in Securitize last year and agreed to bring more regulated products onchain, so the asset manager holds a position in the platform it has chosen and whose shares rose on this announcement.
What Happened?
Cathie Wood, ARK founder and chief investment officer, described putting the venture fund onchain as a natural extension of the firm mission to democratise access to disruptive innovation. Securitize chief executive Carlos Domingo told CoinDesk TV the appeal is diversified exposure to sought-after private technology companies, saying that an investor unsure whether OpenAI or Anthropic will win the AI race gets both in one pool. He added that the underlying assets remain private while the end investor position becomes liquid. ARK joins a group of asset managers moving products onto blockchain rails, following BlackRock BUIDL and Franklin Templeton BENJI funds, which centred on Treasuries and money-market products before firms pushed into equities and private markets. Citi analysts project tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030 as their base case.
Why It Matters?
Domingo sentence about private assets and liquid investments describes liquidity transformation, and it deserves examination rather than acceptance. Stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic are marked, not priced. There is no continuous market setting their value, so a daily net asset value on this fund is an estimate produced by the manager, and a secondary market will trade against that estimate. When sentiment on private AI valuations shifts, the tokenized interests will move faster than the NAV can be restruck, which means the token trades at a premium or discount to a number that is itself an approximation. That is how closed-end funds behave, and interval funds carry redemption limits precisely because their holdings cannot be sold on demand. Tokenizing the wrapper does not change what is inside it. The related-party structure is the second point and the article notes the facts without connecting them. ARK holds a strategic investment in Securitize, selected Securitize as its tokenization partner, and Securitize shares rose 15% on the announcement. That is a transaction benefiting ARK twice, and while it may be entirely appropriate, investors in either entity should see it stated plainly. There is genuine demand being served here. Retail investors have been accepting high fees, lockups and opaque structures to reach pre-IPO AI exposure, and a regulated fund with daily pricing is an improvement on much of that. The caution is that buying this is buying a manager mark on private positions, not a claim on OpenAI or Anthropic, and the distinction matters most when valuations move.
What Next?
Watch the relationship between the traded price of the tokenized interests and the published daily NAV once secondary trading begins, since any persistent discount would reveal what the market thinks of the marks. The five-year SEC innovation exemption underpins much of the Securitize rally and carries an expiry, so its renewal or replacement is a live risk to a stock that has nearly doubled in a week. Anthropic reported November listing is directly relevant, as a public market price for a major holding would test the fund private valuations against a real quote. Track whether other asset managers follow ARK into tokenized private market vehicles, which would indicate the model works commercially. On the fund itself, the disclosure to look for is how frequently private positions are revalued and by whom, because that determines how meaningful the daily NAV actually is.
Affected Tickers and Coins: ETH, BLK, BEN, C
Source: CoinDesk
