Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is partnering with Securitize to put its ARK Venture Fund on blockchain rails, giving eligible investors digital access to a fund that holds stakes in companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks.
ARK Invest and Securitize have announced the tokenization of the ARK Venture Fund, known as ARKVX. The fund invests in public and private companies linked to disruptive innovation, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks. The tokenized interests are planned to launch on Ethereum, with Securitize providing the blockchain infrastructure and investor platform. Eligibility restrictions and the fund’s existing redemption structure still apply.
Venture capital has traditionally been difficult for ordinary investors to access, particularly when the most closely watched technology companies remain privately held.
ARK Invest is now taking a different approach by putting one of its venture funds on blockchain infrastructure.
The investment manager founded by Cathie Wood announced September 24 that it is working with Securitize to tokenize the ARK Venture Fund, allowing eligible investors to access digital representations of interests in the fund.
A Venture Fund Built Around Disruptive Technology
ARKVX is an actively managed, non-diversified closed-end interval fund that invests across both private and publicly traded companies.
Its investment themes include artificial intelligence, next-generation internet technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, digital assets, fintech, space and defense innovation, and biotechnology.
Among its portfolio companies are OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks, giving the fund exposure to several highly watched private technology businesses.
ARK is not putting OpenAI or Anthropic shares directly on a public exchange. It is tokenizing interests in the venture fund that owns investments in those companies.
Why OpenAI and Anthropic Matter
OpenAI and Anthropic have become two of the most closely watched private companies in artificial intelligence, but direct access to their private shares is not available in the same way as buying shares of a listed technology company.
A diversified venture fund can provide exposure to several private companies through one investment structure rather than requiring an investor to obtain direct stakes in each business.
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo described the structure as a way for investors to gain diversified exposure to private technology companies whose future outcomes can be difficult to assess individually.
What Tokenization Actually Changes
Tokenization creates a digital representation of an investment interest on a blockchain. In this case, Securitize will handle the onchain issuance and the technology supporting the investor experience.
The tokenized ARK Venture Fund is planned to launch on Ethereum first. ARK and Securitize have indicated that additional blockchain networks could potentially be supported later.
The move is part of a broader expansion of tokenized financial products, as asset managers and financial technology companies explore whether blockchain networks can make investment ownership and administration more efficient.
The significance of the deal is not simply that one fund is moving onto Ethereum. It is another example of traditional investment products being redesigned around blockchain infrastructure.
Investors Still Face Restrictions
Putting the fund onchain does not eliminate the legal and structural restrictions surrounding the underlying investment.
Access remains subject to investor eligibility requirements. ARKVX is also an interval fund, meaning investors do not receive the same continuous buying and selling mechanism available for shares of a typical publicly traded company.
The fund uses periodic repurchase offers for investors seeking to exit, and those offers can be subject to limits. Tokenization therefore changes the infrastructure around ownership without automatically creating a liquid public market for the fund.
ARK’s Broader Blockchain Strategy
The partnership is also an extension of an existing relationship between ARK Invest and Securitize.
ARK made a strategic investment in Securitize in 2025 as the companies explored the broader development of tokenized securities and onchain capital markets.
Cathie Wood has argued that tokenization could fundamentally change how investors access and participate in private and public financial markets. The ARKVX launch puts that thesis into an actual investment product.
Why This Matters for Private Markets
Private technology companies can remain outside public stock markets for years while their valuations and investor bases grow significantly.
That creates a challenge for investors seeking exposure to companies shaping areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and space technology. Venture funds provide one established route, but they have historically involved specialized structures and limited liquidity.
Tokenization could make the administrative and ownership side of those investments more digital and programmable. It does not, however, remove the investment risks associated with private companies, valuation changes or limited liquidity.
If tokenized funds continue to expand, blockchain infrastructure could become another layer through which investors access traditionally private or difficult-to-trade assets.
The Next Stage of Onchain Finance
ARK's decision to tokenize ARKVX connects three major themes in modern finance: private technology investing, artificial intelligence and blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
For investors who meet the applicable requirements, the structure provides a new digital route into a fund with exposure to companies including OpenAI and Anthropic. For the financial industry, the move offers another test of whether tokenization can become a practical part of mainstream investment markets.
The technology may change how ownership is recorded and managed, but the underlying fundamentals remain the same: investors still face market risk, private-company valuation uncertainty and the possibility that they may not be able to exit an investment whenever they want.
ARK’s move puts a fund containing exposure to some of the biggest names in private technology onto blockchain rails — a sign that the boundary between traditional finance and onchain markets is continuing to move.
Independent technology, business, finance and global news coverage.
