Cathie Wood Eyes Tokenization for Ark Invest Funds, Awaits Regulatory Green Light
Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood envisions a future where some of the firm’s investment funds operate on blockchain networks, but regulatory hurdles in the U.S. remain an obstacle.
“We believe tokenization is going to transform financial markets,” Wood said at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on Tuesday. “If regulations allow, we’d love to tokenize our Venture Fund (ARKVX) and Digital Asset Revolution Fund.”
Wood expressed optimism that U.S. regulators are beginning to create pathways for security token offerings. However, current rules remain unclear, preventing firms like Ark from launching tokenized funds. Some analysts predict the tokenization market could grow into a multi-trillion-dollar industry by 2030.
Ark Invest isn’t alone in its ambitions. Coinbase, a major Ark holding, has also been exploring tokenization. Earlier this month, at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas revealed that the company is in talks with the SEC about issuing a security token—a move that was previously unsuccessful when Coinbase attempted to go public with a tokenized offering in 2020.
However, Jesse Pollack, the founder of Base—Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network—later clarified on X that while the company is evaluating tokenization, there are no concrete plans yet to bring Coinbase stock on-chain.
“We’re still in the early stages, working to understand the regulatory landscape and how we can safely and compliantly bring assets like $COIN to @base,” Pollack stated.
