ARK Seeks SEC Exemption to Launch Tokenized Shares for Venture Fund

ARK Investment Management has filed an exemption request with the U.S. SEC to issue a tokenized share class for its ARK Venture Fund. According to ChainCatcher, the SEC published notice of the filing on August 24 and set September 18 as the deadline for hearing requests. The fund is a continuously offered closed-end interval fund and had total assets of $562 million as of January 31. The application proposes two classes: an exchange-listed class and a tokenized class recorded on distributed ledger technology, with ownership transferable peer-to-peer between registered alternative trading systems or whitelisted wallets. The tokenized shares would be issued at net asset value, without sales charges, and distributed by registered broker-dealers or the fund’s transfer agent. ARK is seeking relief under Sections 6(c), 18, and 17(d) of the Investment Company Act, as well as Rules 23c-3 and 17d-1, with Dechert serving as legal counsel. The filing does not name a tokenization service provider or blockchain. It lists fee categories for a tokenization agent and fund transfer agent, while BNY Mellon currently serves as the fund’s transfer agent, administrator, and custodian. ARK Venture Fund also holds equity in Securitize and a $10 million convertible note. SEC rules for the industry-anticipated tokenization "innovation exemption" framework are still being developed.