Cathie Wood's ARK Wants the SEC's Blessing for Tokenized Fund Shares
Sep 9, 2026
ARK Investment Management is asking the SEC to approve tokenized and exchange share classes for its Venture Fund, a move that could put it ahead of BlackRock and Fidelity in the race to put funds on-chain.
ARK Wants In on Tokenized Funds
Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management is pushing to become one of the first US asset managers with SEC-cleared tokenized fund shares. The firm filed a Second Amended Application back on August 7, asking regulators to let its ARK Venture Fund add two new share classes: an Exchange Class and a fully Tokenized Class.
ARK says it has no immediate plans to actually launch either one yet — this is about clearing the regulatory path first. The Venture Fund itself isn't small, holding around $1.18 billion in net assets as of the end of July.
A Bigger Trend Than Just ARK
Tokenized shares would let ownership live on a blockchain ledger and settle almost instantly, way faster than the usual fund plumbing. Right now, tokenized private equity and venture assets sit around $2.35 billion combined, but PwC thinks that number could balloon to $715 billion by 2030.
The SEC's deadline for hearing requests lands on September 18, so we'll know soon whether ARK gets the green light to keep moving.