ARK Venture Fund and ARK Investment Management are asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to amend an existing exemptive order so the fund can introduce both exchange-listed and tokenized share classes. The SEC notice on the application, published August 24, says ARK wants to add a Tokenized Class whose ownership records would be maintained using distributed ledger technology while remaining within the structure of a registered investment fund.
The request would supersede a 2025 order under which ARK had represented that its fund shares would not trade on an exchange or develop a secondary market. The amended framework would instead allow an Exchange Class to trade on a national securities exchange and a Tokenized Class to trade through regulated alternative trading systems or other approved quotation venues. The proposal therefore adds blockchain-based ownership and secondary trading without removing the shares from existing securities regulation.
Tokenized Shares Could Trade Through ATSs and Wallets
Under the proposed structure, Tokenized Class shares would be issued through the fund’s normal subscription process and distributed either by registered broker-dealers or directly through its transfer agent. Ownership would then be recorded using distributed ledger technology. Secondary transfers could occur on SEC-regulated ATSs, approved quotation systems or through peer-to-peer transactions between eligible wallets.
The class would be sold without a sales load but could carry distribution and shareholder-service fees. The application also says investors may bear class-specific expenses associated with transfer agents, tokenization providers and blockchain transaction costs. Gas fees could apply to sales, repurchases or dividend distributions, adding an operating cost that conventional fund share classes may not face in the same form.
The application also preserves the fund’s existing net-asset-value framework. ARK says all classes would initially be issued at their applicable NAV, although Tokenized Class shares could later trade above or below NAV in secondary transactions. Blockchain settlement would change how ownership and transfers are recorded, not the underlying economic interest represented by the fund share.
SEC Review Is Still Pending
The filing is procedural rather than an approval. The SEC says the application was originally submitted on May 20 and amended on June 11 and August 7. Interested parties have until September 18 to request a hearing, and an order granting the requested relief would be issued unless the Commission decides a hearing is necessary. ARK cannot launch the structure under the requested exemptions until that regulatory process is completed.
ARK Venture Fund is already an SEC-registered interval fund focused on long-term capital growth through investments tied to disruptive innovation. Its official fund page lists more than $1 billion in net assets across the relevant share structure. The tokenization request is therefore an attempt to add new distribution and trading rails to an existing regulated investment product rather than create a separate crypto-native fund.
For now, the significance lies in the regulatory pathway itself. ARK is asking the SEC to accommodate onchain ownership, regulated secondary trading and wallet transfers inside a conventional registered-fund framework, adding another test of how tokenization can be incorporated into established U.S. securities structures.