ARK Invest is bringing its roughly $1.3 billion ARK Venture Fund to Ethereum through a partnership with Securitize, giving eligible investors a blockchain-based way to hold fund shares. The fund owns stakes in private companies including SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, but tokenization does not change its quarterly buyback schedule or create an expected secondary market for the shares.
ARK and Securitize announced the partnership on September 24. The fund is concentrated in companies that are not publicly listed. For investors, the blockchain changes how ownership is recorded and how they access the fund; it does not make the shares freely tradable like listed stocks.
SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic account for major holdings
Tokenization records fund ownership as digital tokens on a blockchain. Eligible investors can access the fund through Securitize. As of August 31, about 78% of the fund’s assets were invested in companies without publicly traded shares, ARK disclosed.
SpaceX was the fund’s largest single holding, at 7.54% of assets. OpenAI accounted for 5.26%, and Anthropic for 3.86%. Because these companies are not listed on stock exchanges, investors receive an interest in the fund—not direct ownership of their shares.
ARK Venture Fund launched in September 2022 and was initially made available to US retail investors through the Titan app, with a minimum investment of $500. ARK said at the time that it wanted to lower the barrier to venture-capital investing for individual investors. The Ethereum offering changes the way fund interests are recorded and accessed, while the underlying portfolio remains largely focused on private companies.
Quarterly buybacks still shape exits
ARK Venture Fund is a periodic repurchase fund, not an open-end fund. Its offering documents specify quarterly repurchases. If requests exceed the amount the fund can fulfill, they may be oversubscribed. ARK has also said it does not expect a secondary trading market to develop for the fund’s shares.
Tokenization therefore does not mean investors can exit immediately. Holding shares on a blockchain does not, by itself, mean they can be transferred at any time or sold at a market price. The fund’s website lists an annualized fee of 2.9%, calculated after fee waivers.
SEC order permits a tokenized share class
An order issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on September 21 allows the fund to offer a tokenized share class. The shares may be traded on an alternative trading system (ATS), an electronic platform distinct from a traditional stock exchange. Regulatory permission should not be confused with the creation of an active market for transfers.
ARK founder, CEO and chief investment officer Cathie Wood said the firm’s research indicates that tokenization could fundamentally change how investors participate in private and public financial markets. The new arrangement applies that view to a fund holding private-company stakes, while its quarterly repurchase schedule and fees remain material terms for investors.
Fund assets have grown since mid-2025
ARK previously invested in Securitize and announced a strategic investment in the company in October 2025. Securitize also tokenized BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on Ethereum in March 2024. The latest partnership further connects traditional fund interests with public blockchain infrastructure.
The fund had already grown substantially before the partnership was announced. SEC filings show that ARK Venture Fund’s net assets rose from $208 million in July 2025 to $558 million in January 2026. Tokenization offers a new way to record fund interests, but investors’ exit options remain tied to quarterly buybacks, and the fund does not anticipate a secondary market.