The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has granted ARK Venture Fund and ARK Investment Management amended exemptive relief under the Investment Company Act of 1940, clearing the way for the closed-end vehicle to create two new share classes: a conventional Exchange Class and a blockchain-based Tokenized Class.
According to SEC Release No. IC-36333, the Exchange Class is designed for trading on a national securities exchange using a standard T+1 settlement cycle. The Tokenized Class would record direct share ownership through distributed-ledger technology, with secondary transfers settling in real time or same-day T+0. Those digital transfers would be limited to institutional whitelist wallets or Alternative Trading Systems regulated under Regulation ATS. ARK did not seek authorization to list the tokenized shares on decentralized finance platforms, and the structure requires strict AML and KYC checks before wallet validation.
The SEC administrative proceeding concluded after the deadline to request public hearings expired on September 18, 2026. The order amends ARK's previous November 2025 relief and gives the fund a dual institutional and retail participation model. Legal counsel was coordinated by Dechert LLP, while The Bank of New York Mellon remains custodian, administrator and transfer agent. Issuance of digital units would occur at net asset value without direct sales loads, with tokenization and transfer agent fees allocated to the Tokenized Class.
ARK Venture Fund reported $562 million in total reported assets as of January 31, 2026. By May 15, 2026, existing shares were valued at approximately $912.6 million across non-affiliated holders. The fund also holds an equity stake in Securitize and a $10 million convertible note with a 5% coupon maturing in September 2028. Securitize acts as technical transfer agent for tokenized products including BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. RWA.xyz data tracked the global tokenized venture capital and private equity sector at about $2.35 billion across 25 assets and 7,263 holders in early September 2026.
Despite the approval, ARK has not announced that the new share classes are already trading or set an immediate commercial launch date. The next SEC administrative milestone is November 3, 2026, when public comments are due on proposed updates to rules for transfer agents using blockchain registries.
