ARK and Securitize tokenize ARK Venture Fund on Ethereum with OpenAI and Anthropic stakes
By Crypto Wire
September 24, 2026
ARK Invest and Securitize announced on September 24, 2026 that they are tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) on Ethereum, putting blockchain-based fund interests in front of eligible investors who want exposure to a private-and-public tech book that includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. CryptoTimes and CoinDesk both frame the product as Securitize handling onchain issuance and the investor experience while ARK keeps managing the portfolio. Securitize set the minimum investment at $500. That is the Real-World Utility lead for Orange County desks: a venture-interval fund moving onto Ethereum rails—not another money-market wrap, and not a rehash of yesterday’s SEC share-class clearance alone.
How this differs from LN 9582 without repeating it. Yesterday’s Plain English Policy piece covered the SEC clearing ARK Venture for tokenized and exchange share classes. Today’s unused angle is the Securitize operationalization: tokenized ARKVX available on Ethereum upon release, with named private-tech exposure and a published $500 entry gate. Do not collapse the two stories into one headline. The SEC path made share classes possible; this tick is the onchain distribution partnership going live in the news cycle.
What Securitize published for the top of the book. CryptoTimes cites Securitize’s ten largest positions: SpaceX at 7.54%, Kalshi at 5.81%, Ayar Labs at 5.65%, OpenAI at 5.26%, Stripe at 4.16%, Anthropic at 3.86%, Lila Sciences at 3.71%, Crusoe and Tenstorrent at 3.68% each, and Figure at 2.35%, plus more than 70 other companies, with holdings subject to change. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo pitched diversification across the AI race—OpenAI and Anthropic in one pool—rather than a single-name private-equity bet. Attribute those weights to Securitize’s published list; do not invent a full NAV dollar total the release does not give.
What tokenization changes—and what it does not. Representing an investor’s interest as a blockchain record is not the same as putting OpenAI or SpaceX shares freely onchain. ARKVX remains an actively managed, non-diversified closed-end interval fund. ARK disclosures reiterated in the wrap say shares are not exchange-listed, no secondary market is expected to develop, and liquidity is limited to periodic repurchase offers that may be oversubscribed. CoinDesk separately notes Securitize plans to provide a daily net asset value and enable fund interests to trade on blockchain-based markets—keep that as Securitize’s stated plan, and keep CryptoTimes’ caveat that the announcement does not fully spell out how peer transfers would interact with repurchase terms.
Why the partnership already existed. ARK’s strategic investment in Securitize was announced in October 2025, and both firms describe today’s tokenization as the next phase of that relationship. Cathie Wood called making the fund available onchain a natural extension of ARK’s access mission. Securitize said it had about $5 billion in assets under management as of August 2026 and works with managers including Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck; it listed on the NYSE as SECZ in July. Those AUM and client names are firm context—not ARKVX AUM.
Why Real-World Utility opens here for NFT settlement readers. Most tokenized fund tape this cycle still wraps Treasuries and money markets. A venture interval fund with OpenAI and Anthropic in the top six is a different RWA shape: private-tech exposure represented on Ethereum beside the same chain collectors use for marketplace settlement—while exit remains interval-fund repurchase math, not Blur-style bid liquidity. Leave HIFI’s $37 million Series A (LN 9669) and Solana’s RWA ATH (LN 9660) closed. What to watch next: whether tokenized interests actually transfer between holders under repurchase rules, whether daily NAV feeds appear as promised, and whether Ondo’s same-day BlackRock-strategy portfolios (noted as same-day backdrop only) pull attention away from venture-style wrappers.
What not to invent: that buying tokenized ARKVX is buying transferable OpenAI stock, that a deep secondary market already exists, that every retail wallet can subscribe without eligibility checks, or that the $500 minimum erases interval-fund lockup risk. Stick to attributed disclosures. Operational hygiene for desks parking settlement capital next to RWA experiments: separate NFT inventory from interval-fund subscriptions, read repurchase calendars before treating onchain fund tokens as liquid USDC substitutes, and verify Securitize eligibility gates before pointing collectors at the product.
Bottom line: ARK and Securitize are bringing tokenized ARKVX to Ethereum with a $500 minimum and top holdings that include SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic—while liquidity still rides interval-fund repurchase rails, not free private-share trading.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or trading advice. The NFT market is highly volatile, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions related to digital assets. The cover image for this article may have been created using artificial intelligence (AI).
