Ark Invest’s Plans for On-Chain Tokenization

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, an early traditional financial investor in cryptocurrency, aims to transition some of her company’s funds on-chain when U.S. regulations permit it.

> “We think tokenization is going to be huge,” Wood stated during the Digital Asset Summit in New York. “We’d love to be able to tokenize our Venture Fund (ARKVX) or our Digital Asset Revolution Fund.”

Wood expressed optimism that regulations are progressively evolving, which may soon allow Ark to seize this opportunity.

Currently, U.S. regulators have not established a clear framework for registering security tokens, posing challenges for firms like Ark trying to engage in this expanding market, potentially worth trillions by 2030.

Executives from Coinbase, a significant Ark holding, previously indicated a tentative approach towards tokenization.

During the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas mentioned that the exchange is in discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about issuing a security token, a concept that failed during its prior public offering attempt in 2020.

Later, Jesse Pollack, founder of Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network, clarified on X that there are no definitive plans to tokenize Coinbase’s stock yet. “We are in an exploratory phase working to unlock what’s needed from a regulatory standpoint to bring assets like $COIN to Base safely and compliantly,” he stated.