ARK partners with Securitize to put a venture fund on Ethereum, but leaves exit doors locked

ARK Invest and Securitize announced on Sept. 24 that eligible investors would be able to hold tokenized interests in the ARK Venture Fund on Ethereum.

This new ownership route puts an established interval fund on blockchain infrastructure, so investors still face the fund's limited exit options when trying to sell their shares.

ARKVX invests across private and public technology companies, and its tokenized interests represent exposure through the managed fund, giving holders a stake in ARKVX. According to the announcement, Securitize will handle the on-chain issuance and investor experience.

ARK's 2026 calendar sets Sept. 30 as the next repurchase request deadline, days after the tokenization announcement. The fund offers to buy back up to 5% of its outstanding shares at net asset value each quarter.

The published calendar and launch terms leave open whether someone acquiring a tokenized interest after Sept. 24 can participate in this month's offer.

ARK and Securitize's launch disclosure says the shares are unlisted and that no secondary market is expected. ARK's fund page tells shareholders to expect sales through its repurchase policy, and the calendar likewise calls the shares illiquid.

A Sept. 21 SEC order gives ARK permission to offer a tokenized share class that may trade on alternative trading systems or appear on other quotation services. Regulatory permission could eventually provide another route to buyers, depending on whether trading begins and whether buyers emerge.

The application behind the order sets further limits on that possibility. ARK said only approved wallets could hold tokenized shares and it did not expect a robust trading market at the outset. It described alternative-system, over-the-counter and peer-to-peer transactions as possibilities subject to those controls.

The application also says repurchase offers are allocated across the entire fund, so the tokenized class has no separate buyback pool.

For an investor considering ARKVX now, the key question is whether a place to sell tokenized shares actually opens and attracts buyers. Until then, ARK's published terms center on a quarterly process that can buy back only a limited share of the fund.

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