Cathie Wood's ARK teams with Securitize to tokenize venture fund with OpenAI, Anthropic stakes
RWA Signal Insight
PE/VCARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, is tokenizing its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) to provide blockchain-based access to a portfolio of high-profile private technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. The initiative utilizes Securitize’s infrastructure to issue tokenized interests on the Ethereum blockchain, marking a shift from traditional money-market tokenization toward private equity and venture capital. While the underlying assets remain private, the tokenization process aims to enhance liquidity and provide a daily net asset value for investors. This move represents a significant expansion of institutional interest in onchain financial products, following earlier industry trends focused primarily on U.S. Treasuries. The partnership builds upon a prior strategic investment by ARK in Securitize, signaling a long-term commitment to integrating regulated investment products with blockchain technology. By leveraging onchain rails, ARK seeks to democratize access to disruptive innovation while navigating the evolving regulatory landscape for tokenized securities. This development aligns with broader market projections, such as Citi’s forecast that tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.
Key points
- ARK Invest tokenizes the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) using Securitize infrastructure on Ethereum.
- Portfolio includes stakes in major private firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks.
- Tokenization aims to provide daily net asset value and increased liquidity for fund interests.
- The initiative follows ARK's previous strategic investment in the tokenization firm Securitize.
Background
The ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) is an actively managed interval fund that provides investors with exposure to both private and publicly traded companies. Interval funds are a type of investment company that periodically offers to repurchase shares from shareholders, providing limited liquidity compared to traditional open-end mutual funds. Securitize is a leading digital asset securities firm that provides the technology stack for issuing, managing, and trading tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains.