ARK Investment Management has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to let the ARK Venture Fund add a tokenized share class, a move that would allow ownership records to be tracked on blockchain infrastructure for a registered interval fund. The request was made in a Second Amended Application filed on August 7 and seeks changes to an SEC order issued in 2025.

According to the filing, ARK is not preparing an immediate launch of the new class. Even so, the proposal outlines how tokenized fund shares could be issued, transferred and traded within existing securities rules, including through registered intermediaries and SEC-supervised trading venues.

Proposed changes to the fund structure

The ARK Venture Fund is a non-diversified closed-end interval fund organized as a Delaware statutory trust. It invests in public and private companies tied to disruptive innovation and currently offers Class D, Class S and Class U shares, listed as ARKVX, ARKSX and ARKUX.

ARK now wants approval to add two more categories of shares: an Exchange Class and a Tokenized Class. The application says neither class would carry a sales load, though each could include distribution or shareholder-service fees as well as class-specific expenses. The filing does not yet specify ongoing fee rates or net expense ratios.

How the new classes would work

Under the proposal, the Exchange Class would trade on a national securities exchange and be issued through an at-the-market offering. That would give the fund a listed share class alongside its existing structure.

The Tokenized Class would use distributed-ledger technology to record ownership. ARK said those shares could be distributed through registered broker-dealers or directly by the fund’s transfer agent. Trading could take place on SEC-registered alternative trading systems operating under Regulation ATS, through other quotation media, or on a peer-to-peer basis using whitelisted wallets.

Settlement and the 2025 order

The filing also describes differences in settlement. ARK said some transactions involving the Tokenized Class may settle on a T+0 basis, while transactions in the proposed Exchange Class are expected to settle on T+1.

The SEC approval ARK is seeking would modify a 2025 order that barred the fund from offering shares in an unlisted category without a secondary market. In effect, ARK is asking the regulator to recognize a structure in which secondary trading exists for both a listed class and a blockchain-tracked class, rather than treating the fund’s unlisted shares as lacking a market altogether.

Why the filing stands out

The proposal places ARK in a small but expanding tokenized-funds segment. The source article cites tokenized private equity and venture capital as representing about $2.35 billion in distributed value across 25 assets and 7,263 holders.

PwC projects tokenized fund assets could reach $715 billion globally by 2030. Against that backdrop, ARK’s filing is notable less for an imminent product launch than for the regulatory model it proposes: blockchain-based ownership records and transfer mechanisms operating alongside broker-dealer distribution and SEC-registered trading frameworks.

What comes next

The immediate next step is the SEC’s review of ARK’s amended application. No launch timeline for the Tokenized Class has been provided, and ARK has said it does not currently plan to introduce the class.

If the SEC approves the request, the decision could help clarify how a registered investment fund might combine conventional securities oversight with on-chain recordkeeping and secondary transfers without positioning tokenization as a workaround to securities law.

Source: Cryptopolitan