ARK partners with Securitize to tokenize venture capital funds, with holdings including OpenAI and Anthropic

Asset management company ARK Invest announced a partnership with the tokenization platform Securitize to tokenize its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), initially issuing it on Ethereum, with potential expansion to other blockchains in the future. The fund invests in private and public companies, with holdings including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. ARK founder and CEO Cathie Wood stated that putting the ARK Venture Fund on-chain is a natural extension of its mission to democratize investment in disruptive innovation.

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo stated that this move provides investors with diversified exposure to popular private tech companies, allowing them to hold both OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously if uncertain about which will win the AI race. He also pointed out that tokenization will not put these companies or their shares on-chain; investors will receive an on-chain representation of fund equity, while the underlying assets remain private, but user investments will have liquidity. Securitize also plans to provide daily net asset values and support fund equity trading on-chain markets.

This collaboration builds on the existing relationship between the two parties, as ARK made a strategic investment in Securitize last year. Currently, Wall Street asset management firms are accelerating the introduction of traditional financial products to blockchain, with early attempts such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund primarily focused on U.S. Treasury and money market products, now expanding into equities and private markets.