ARK Investment Management has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to issue a share class of its venture fund whose ownership is recorded using distributed ledger technology, according to an application on file with the agency. The SEC published notice of the request on Aug. 24 and set a Sept. 18 deadline for hearing requests, after which it can grant an order.
ARK is pursuing the tokenized class through the standard exemptive application route rather than waiting on the tokenization relief the SEC has signaled but not issued. The application asks for no relief on the blockchain mechanics themselves, stating in a footnote that the applicants "are not seeking exemptive relief with respect to whether or how distributed ledger technology is used by a Fund to maintain a record of its shareholders."
The applicant is ARK Venture Fund, a continuously offered closed-end interval fund that held $562 million in total assets as of Jan. 31, according to its semi-annual report. Its existing Class D, Class S and Class U shares priced at $49.83, $49.69 and $49.70 as of May 15, for an aggregate non-affiliate market value of about $912.6 million. The fund is separate from the $6.55 billion ARK Innovation ETF, which sits in another registrant, ARK ETF Trust.
