ARK Investment Management is seeking regulatory clearance to introduce a tokenized share class for the ARK Venture Fund, potentially adding blockchain-based ownership records and secondary trading to the interval fund. The proposal would create a Tokenized Class alongside a separate Exchange Class, according to an official SEC notice published on August 24.
The application was originally filed on May 20 and amended on June 11 and August 7. The SEC has not yet approved the new structure, and interested parties have until September 18 at 5:30 p.m. ET to request a hearing before the Commission decides whether to grant the requested relief.
Tokenized Shares Could Trade on Regulated Venues
Under the proposed model, investors would subscribe to Tokenized Class shares through the fund’s existing subscription process, with ownership recorded using distributed ledger technology. The shares could subsequently trade on SEC-registered alternative trading systems, other quotation mediums or through peer-to-peer transfers between approved wallets.
The structure does not mean that ARK’s underlying venture investments themselves would be moved on-chain. Tokenization applies to the ownership record of the fund shares, preserving the ARK Venture Fund as a registered closed-end interval fund while introducing a blockchain-based mechanism for recording and potentially transferring investor interests.
ARK proposes distributing the Tokenized Class either through registered broker-dealers or directly through the fund’s transfer agent. The shares would carry no sales load, although they could have distribution and shareholder-service fees. Tokenization-specific expenses, including transfer-agent, tokenization-agent and blockchain gas costs, would be allocated to the relevant share class.
SEC Filing Opens a Secondary Market Path
The application would modify a November 2025 SEC order that allowed ARK Venture Fund to maintain multiple share classes. Under that earlier arrangement, ARK had represented that shares would not trade on an exchange or quotation medium and that no secondary market was expected. The new filing seeks to remove that restriction by permitting both exchange-listed and tokenized secondary-market classes.
Investor access would remain controlled rather than permissionless. ARK proposes conducting anti-money laundering and know-your-customer checks on wallets seeking to hold Tokenized Class shares, with only approved addresses permitted. Blockchain-based transfers would therefore operate inside a regulated securities framework with investor identification and sanctions controls.
Secondary-market prices could also differ from the fund’s net asset value. The application requires disclosure that Tokenized Class shares traded through ATSs or peer-to-peer transactions may change hands above or below NAV. Tokenization would add transferability and new trading rails without guaranteeing that secondary-market prices remain aligned with the fund’s underlying value.
ARK has not identified the blockchain, tokenization agent or specific trading venue that would support the proposed class. For now, the filing represents regulatory groundwork rather than a live tokenized fund product, with implementation dependent on the SEC granting the amended exemptive order.
