According to data from Farside, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted a net outflow of $635 million yesterday. Among them, BlackRock’s IBIT saw a net outflow of $254 million, Fidelity’s FBTC recorded a net outflow of $217 million, and ARK’s ARKB had a net outflow of $109 million. Additionally, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs reported a net outflow of $110 million yesterday, with BlackRock’s ETHA seeing a net outflow of $75.5 million and BlackRock’s ETHB recording a net outflow of $17.2 million.
Robinhood has won a Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) license to serve retail investors across the Middle East. However, the US trading app will not launch its products until 2027.
The approval is also older than it looks. Robinhood MENA Limited received its license on July 20, three months before Thursday’s announcement.
Robinhood chooses the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) as its regional headquarters to drive its Middle East expansion, having received authorization from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to introduce its retail investing platform in the Middle East from… pic.twitter.com/zwnmNQ9Asi
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) October 22, 2026 What Does Robinhood’s Dubai License Actually Allow?Robinhood MENA, led by Salah Kaddoura, will operate from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a financial free zone.
The company says the license covers all 10 DFSA-approved asset classes. These include stocks, ETFs, crypto, and investment tokens, meaning tokenized securities.
The public register reads narrower. It lists “arranging” permissions, including futures and options, suggesting trades and custody may run through other group entities.
“The DIFC is one of the world’s most important financial hubs, and our expansion there brings us closer to building a global platform that enables anyone, anywhere to own the highest quality financial assets.”
Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Can Robinhood Catch Rivals Already Live in the Gulf?Dubai follows Singapore and Canada in Robinhood’s 2026 expansion. The company says its stock tokens traded $15 billion in Robinhood Chain’s first 100 days.
ARK Invest data shows that network out-earned Ethereum last quarter.
Still, DIFC already hosts 72 brokers, up from 49 in 2022, per DFSA data. eToro, Interactive Brokers, and local app Baraka already serve UAE investors.
Crypto-native rivals are moving faster. Kraken won full approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) on Oct. 12. Its launch, due within weeks, includes xStocks tokenized equities.
Bybit added a VARA spot trading license on Thursday. Exchanges worldwide are also pushing into stock trading.
Gulf Wealth Opportunity or Crowded Niche?Bull caseBear caseLicense spans tokens, crypto, and derivativesRegister lists arranging permissions only$15 billion in stock token tradingAMC’s CEO questions whether tokens are fully backedYoung, wealthy Gulf retail baseMENA drew 4.1% of broker web traffic in Q3, versus 42% for Europe (FM Intelligence)Over 1 million funded users outside the USA 2027 launch hands rivals a year’s head startMeanwhile, US regulators have backed real stock tokens over synthetic copies.
Which Markets Could Feel Robinhood’s Gulf Entry? Robinhood Markets (HOOD) shares barely moved, suggesting little Gulf revenue is priced in. Regional brokers such as Baraka and eToro face the most direct overlap. VARA exchanges like Kraken and Bybit overlap on spot crypto and tokenized stocks. Tokenization issuers could gain a licensed Gulf distribution channel. Robinhood has yet to name which countries it will serve. By 2027, DFSA brokers and VARA exchanges may be chasing the same Gulf investor from opposite rulebooks.
Tokenized equities were the biggest driver of onchain trading growth in the third quarter of 2026, according to ARK Invest’s DeFi quarterly report released Wednesday.
The value of tokenized stocks rose 86% to approximately $3.2 billion in the quarter, while tokenized active strategies climbed 166% to $4 billion as major crypto platforms such as Robinhood, Coinbase, and Payward expanded into tokenized equities, the report said.
The growth was also supported by the SEC clearing tokenized equity trading on permissioned DeFi venues.
Meanwhile, tokenized US Treasuries held at roughly $15 billion, and tokenized credit grew 25% to $8 billion, helped by products including a Securitize and Neuberger Berman tokenized high-yield fund.
The total real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market rose 19% quarter-over-quarter to $39 billion, up from $17 billion a year earlier, according to the report.
Ethereum still led but competitors started to gain round
Ethereum hosted about $16.7 billion in tokenized RWAs and remained the leading network for institutional issuance, although its share of public blockchain RWA value declined to roughly 44% from 50% at the end of the second quarter, the report stated.
BNB Chain, Solana and Stellar roughly tripled their RWA totals year-to-date as growth spread across competing networks.
BNB Chain gained from tokenized money market funds such as iBENJI and USYC, while Solana’s expansion was driven mainly by tokenized equities and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund.
Tokenized stocks drove DEX trading growth
Tokenized stocks became a larger part of decentralized trading, with spot decentralized exchange (DEX) volume jumping about ninefold to $50 billion, or approximately 9% of total spot DEX volume versus 1% in the prior quarter.
Total spot DEX volume rose 13% to $571 billion, marking its first quarterly increase in four quarters. Stablecoin transaction volume grew 16% to $781 billion and monthly active addresses rose 39% to 73 million, while total stablecoin supply declined 3% to $309 billion.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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ARK Invest’s Q3 2026 DeFi report shows that tokenized equities were the main driver of the quarter’s rebound in on-chain activity. Tokenized equity spot DEX trading volume hit roughly $50 billion, about 9 times the prior quarter’s level, lifting its share of total spot DEX volume from ~1% to ~9%. Total spot DEX volume rose ~13% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to $571 billion, marking its first quarterly increase in four quarters. In its first quarter since launch, Robinhood Chain generated ~$65 billion in DEX trading volume and $51 million in network revenue, with its network income nearly matching BNB Chain’s performance in the same period. However, ARK projects that recent adjustments to the gas mechanism will cause the chain’s revenue to decline from current levels. Total stablecoin supply fell ~3% QoQ to $309 billion, but adjusted trading volume rose ~16% QoQ to $781 billion, while monthly active addresses grew ~39% to 73 million. Perpetual contract DEXs saw a divergence between open interest and trading activity: open interest rose ~76% QoQ to $240 billion, while quarterly trading volume dropped ~16% to $1.4 trillion. Hyperliquid’s open interest stood at ~$130 billion, accounting for ~53% of the total. ARK notes this trend points to fewer but larger, longer-held positions.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Over the past two hours, the Drift attacker has transferred a total of 25,700 ETH to Tornado Cash.
Per Lookonchain monitoring, Drift Protocol has resumed activity after two months of inactivity, transferring ETH to Tornado Cash. Over the past two hours, the attacker has deposited 25,700 ETH (worth roughly $61.56 million) into Tornado Cash, and currently holds 81,864 ETH (valued at approximately $195 million).
15 minutes ago
Wang Ziru’s first AI product VIVA debuts: three virtual characters manage diet, training, and sleep.
Beating AI News Flash from Dongcha: ZEALER founder and former GREE executive Wang Zirong has unveiled VIVA, the first AI product his team is developing, focused on personal health management. The tool integrates three virtual roles – a dietitian, fitness coach, and life assistant – into one chat interface. Users can either snap a photo of their meals or directly state what they ate; the AI will calculate calories and log nutritional intake. The fitness coach customizes training plans based on the user’s schedule, guides workouts, and tracks progress. The life assistant supports integration with Apple Health, adjusting daily recommendations using sleep and activity data – for instance, if the user got insufficient sleep last night, training intensity will be appropriately reduced today. The three roles share conversation information, so users don’t need to switch between separate tools. The product has a backstory: In June this year, Wang showcased an AI health management prototype he built, disclosing he previously used AI to aid fat loss, dropping his weight from 86kg to 74kg. During development, he prioritized solving two pain points: the complexity of Chinese home cooking makes calorie estimation hard, and smart wearable data is scattered, requiring manual sorting for AI analysis. In August, Wang revealed his startup’s software would launch no later than September. Now, the team plans to host on-site VIVA experiences at Xiaohongshu’s "Ma?ana Tomorrow Park" in Haikou from October 23 to 25.
15 minutes ago
Drift Protocol exploiter moves $61.56M in ETH to Tornado Cash after 2-month silence
The Drift Protocol exploiter, who stole over $270M, is moving $ETH to #TornadoCash after 2 months of inactivity. Over the past 2 hours, the exploiter has deposited 25,700 $ETH ($61.56M) into #TornadoCash and still holds 81,864 $ETH ($195M).
15 minutes ago
Samsung Electronics is now leveraging its 5-nanometer process technology to attract new clients.
According to South Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics' Foundry Business Division, which handles semiconductor contract manufacturing, has begun targeting new customers for its 5-nanometer (nm, one billionth of a meter) process, as its 4-nanometer process capacity is already fully operational. While contracts for its most advanced 2-nanometer process with global large tech firms have been delayed, the move aims to boost production utilization centered on its 4-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes—boasting relatively stable yields—to improve profitability. Per semiconductor industry sources on the 20th, Samsung Foundry’s 4-nanometer process capacity has effectively reached saturation amid a recent rise in customer orders. As such, Samsung is expanding its sales efforts to attract new clients for its 5-nanometer process. Analysts note that this push for 5-nanometer customers is also a response to the demand shift: with 4-nanometer capacity nearing saturation, the 5-nanometer process can be offered as an alternative to meet clients’ performance and cost requirements, while also lifting utilization of existing production facilities. Conversely, securing major customers for its 2-nanometer process—its next-generation flagship technology—remains a key challenge. Samsung is in talks with global large tech firms for semiconductor manufacturing contracts based on its 2-nanometer process, but some negotiations are progressing slower than initially anticipated. Advanced processes require not only yield verification but also comprehensive validation of energy efficiency, design intellectual property (IP), and stable mass production capabilities, making the timeline to finalize contracts and launch mass production considerably long.
15 minutes ago
A whale increased its long positions in crude oil to $36.95 million intraday, becoming the largest crude oil long holder on-chain.
According to TradingBeats monitoring, the largest long whale in crude oil contracts, whose address starts with 0x0cc1, has continued to add positions in WTI and Brent crude oil longs over the past 24 hours, net buying approximately $32.785 million. After consecutive position increases, its total long positions in the two oils are valued at around $36.949 million, with an unrealized profit of about $639,000. WTI is the main direction of its position increase, with a net addition of approximately $21.828 million; Brent has a net addition of about $10.957 million. The whale’s positions in the two oils are as follows: WTI crude oil: position value of around $24.001 million, average entry price of $98.597, unrealized profit of about $464,000. Brent crude oil: position value of approximately $12.948 million, average entry price of $106.2393, unrealized profit of about $176,000. During the same period, WTI and Brent contracts were priced at $100.54 and $107.70 respectively. The latest round of position additions by this account occurred around 17:08 today, and as of press time, it is still adding positions.
15 minutes ago
MPLX jumps over 110% in a short period amid news of its listing on Upbit's KRW trading pair.
According to HTX market data, MPLX jumped more than 110% in a short period following the news of its listing on Upbit's KRW trading pair, and is now trading at $0.11.
ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood recently stated that memory chips have entered a buy zone, adding that the rapid rise in memory prices and the impact of falling electronics sales have already been partially priced into stocks. In contrast, Michael Hartnett, Chief Investment Strategist at Bank of America Global Research, pointed out that the end of market sell signals does not mark the arrival of a buying opportunity, as two key prerequisites for a return to risk assets remain unmet. The surge in memory chip prices is mainly driven by AI servers crowding out production capacity, with original manufacturers shifting more output to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DDR5, resulting in tightened supply for consumer-grade memory. According to TrendForce data, DRAM contract prices are projected to rise 90%–95% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026 and 58%–63% in Q2 2026, while NAND Flash contract prices will increase 55%–60% and 70%–75% respectively in the same periods. Soaring memory costs have also begun to impact the consumer electronics supply chain. Citing IDC data, global smartphone shipments in Q3 2026 fell 22% year-on-year to 255.3 million units. Memory original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) benefit from the price hikes, while end-device brands face the dual challenges of rising costs and weak sales. Key areas to monitor going forward include whether DRAM/NAND contract price gains continue to narrow, whether declines in smartphone and PC shipments improve, whether memory’s share of end-device material costs has peaked, and whether memory OEMs will reallocate production capacity to consumer-grade products.
According to Reuters, AI computing firm Tenstorrent has closed a $1.5 billion Series E funding round, with a post-money valuation of $6.2 billion. The round was led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, with participation from both new and existing investors including Agostinelli Group, ARK Invest, Brett Barna, Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Maverick Silicon, Morgan Stanley, Protagonist, Sandisk, T. Rowe Price, Tether Investments, Troluce Capital, Virtu Financial, and XTX Markets. Tenstorrent will use the funds to scale deployment of its Galaxy servers, continue supporting open-weight models in large language models (LLMs) and video generation, and advance its AI and CPU IP business—licensing its proprietary chip designs to clients.
Dual shocks from AI infrastructure financing risks and surging oil prices hit Wall Street: the Nasdaq 100 index fell 5.5% week-to-date, marking its largest single-week drop since the April 2025 tariff turmoil; the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined for eight consecutive trading days, its longest losing streak since 2008, with a total loss of around 16%. AI cloud service provider CoreWeave has become a market focal point, with some of its bond yields once topping 15%, sparking concerns over AI infrastructure financing costs, capital expenditure returns, and corporate solvency. CoreWeave’s stock dropped 12% on Friday, with its cumulative decline from this year’s peak exceeding 50%.
Meanwhile, Brent crude oil climbed to around $110 per barrel, while WTI crude rose 3.8% on Friday to $101.71. The oil price surge has reignited inflation expectations, pushing the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to 5.097%, eroding government bonds’ safe-haven appeal amid stock market declines. Market worries about AI are shifting from computing power demand to financing costs and profit returns. Still, some investors are opting to buy the dip: Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management increased its holdings in CoreWeave and Cerebras Systems. Going forward, tech giants’ earnings reports will be critical to verifying whether AI-related revenues can support sustained high capital expenditures.
Relevant content
Analysis: UNI’s CEX inflows hit a new year-to-date high; prices have pulled back over 30% from their recent peak amid whale distribution pressure.
Crypto analyst Darkfost said in a post that Uniswap (UNI) has been facing sustained selling pressure recently, with its inflow to trading platforms hitting a year-to-date high. UNI rallied around 370% from its June low; in September, Uniswap’s total value locked (TVL) exceeded $4 billion, a new annual high, and the decentralized exchange’s trading volume also peaked at $93.6 billion. However, the strengthening fundamentals failed to stem the recent price pullback. Data shows that in late September, UNI’s inflow into Binance repeatedly reached year-to-date highs. Inflows remain active currently, but the growth momentum appears to be weakening. Darkfost pointed out that if UNI’s inflow to trading platforms continues to decline, the token may gradually form a bottom, easing the selling pressure accumulated since its recent $10.9 peak. UNI has now pulled back over 30% from that high.
2 minutes ago
DeepSeek pushes AI programming into the 'prompt era': Creates 3D games from scratch, DeepSWE benchmark outperforms Opus 5
Dynamic Insight’s Beating AI News Flash: DeepSeek has upgraded its V4.1 Flash model to version 1017, with updates rolled out simultaneously for its web platform, app, and API. The new model weights have been open-sourced under the MIT license.
Official test results show that DeepSWE v1.1 software engineering task pass rate rose from 74.2% to 77.0%, surpassing Claude Opus 5’s 74.0%. Terminal-Bench 4.0 improved from 31.2% to 42.3%, though still lagging behind Opus 5’s 51.8%.
Per DeepSeek’s published cost curve, the configuration achieving the 77% pass rate costs an average of approximately 1.3 yuan per task. It’s worth noting that the comparison benchmark here is Opus 5, not the newer Opus 5.5.
A key focus of the new version is enhancing "wish-based programming" – a feature where users only provide simple requirements, and the AI independently plans and executes the entire project. DeepSeek improved this capability via reinforcement learning with self-feedback, showcasing demos including a 3D Forbidden City scene, a web-based racing game, and a Godot engine-based recreation of Portal 2.
The company stated the new model reduces both task completion time and output length, with optimizations tailored for DeepSeek Harness, Tencent CodeBuddy, and WorkBuddy.
Additionally, DeepSeek is opening its self-developed search engine’s Search and Fetch APIs to developers for the first time. Developers can now enable AI agents to directly search web pages and extract content. Both APIs are billed per successful request, at 5 yuan per 1,000 requests. Search requests triggered via Claude Code and Codex’s built-in web search function will be free of API call fees for the first two weeks.
A crypto whale opened a 5x long position on TIA, generating a 272% return.
Hyperliquid’s TIA contract is currently trading at $0.75, up roughly 18% from the prior day. Against this market backdrop, two large holders with opposing positions have seen a stark divergence in profit and loss. One whale address, 0xe097…d0fe, holds approximately 1.1195 million TIA in long positions, using 5x full leverage, valued at around $820,000. It currently has an unrealized profit of about $289,000, a position return rate of roughly 272%, and remains unclosed. The other whale address, 0x07fd…689d, holds roughly 1.4295 million TIA in short positions, also with 5x full leverage, valued at approximately $1.07 million. It currently has an unrealized loss of about $342,000, with a position return rate of around -236%. This address added some 23,400 TIA to its short position at around $0.65 yesterday, and remains unclosed as of now.
2 minutes ago
Foreign media: Telegram provided user data to US authorities, court documents reveal.
Independent media outlets Court Watch and 404 Media have jointly reported that recently unsealed U.S. federal court documents reveal privacy-focused social messaging app Telegram provided specific user private data to U.S. authorities upon receiving valid legal requests. The documents include a September 2026 response from Telegram, which contains the user’s phone number, user ID, account display name, as well as the last login IP address and timestamp. Telegram described the disclosure as "voluntary", but stated it does not recognize U.S. judicial jurisdiction, and did not provide any chat content or contact information. Prior to this, Telegram adjusted its policy starting September 2024, allowing it to disclose IP addresses and phone numbers when judicial authorities confirm a user is suspected of criminal activity violating its terms of service. In all of 2024, the company responded to approximately 900 U.S. law enforcement requests involving 2,253 users.
2 minutes ago
AI infrastructure returns under pressure: Gartner forecasts over $3.5 trillion in investments face impairment risk
Beating AI Express News: Gartner estimates that by 2030, AI data center owners will need to generate cumulative revenue of $8.5 trillion to cover capital expenditures, financing costs, and achieve a 12% return on invested capital (ROIC). However, revenue from AI businesses attributable to enterprises and consumers is projected to reach only $3.6 trillion, less than half of the target. The firm warns that AI infrastructure investment expansion may outpace revenue growth, and computing power assets could become obsolete before generating sufficient returns due to rapid depreciation, with over $3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure spending facing impairment risks.
Separately, Global X research forecasts that the AI-related revenue of 15 AI platforms and service providers will exceed infrastructure depreciation around 2027, and reach approximately $1.5 trillion by 2030. The firm estimates that by 2030, every $1 in annual depreciation of AI-related assets will correspond to $2.36 in AI revenue. However, revenue covering depreciation does not mean it is sufficient to cover financing costs and meet the 12% ROIC requirement.
Gartner also predicts that cost pressures and insufficient business differentiation will lead over 80% of new cloud service providers to cease independent operations by 2030. Meanwhile, CoreWeave’s CEO stated that the company’s order backlog is enough to meet its debt obligations. The firm’s Q2 backlog stood at $104.2 billion, with new customer commitments exceeding $25 billion in the third quarter.
CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) shares fell 4.75% to $66.38 in premarket trading Friday amid continuing concerns over the company’s debt-funded AI infrastructure expansion, despite Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest buying 381,231 shares over the previous two trading sessions.
CoreWeave’s 9.625% unsecured notes due in 2032 traded below 80 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, pushing their secondary-market yield above 15%. The bonds recovered to about 81 cents on Thursday, with yields around 14.6%, but remained well below face value.
The higher secondary-market yields reflect the bonds’ lower trading prices, not a change in their fixed 9.625% coupon. The bond market pressure comes as CoreWeave relies heavily on external capital to buy advanced Nvidia processors and expand its data centers.
ARK purchased an additional 192,566 CoreWeave shares on Thursday, including 148,950 through its ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and 43,616 through the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), according to the investment firm’s daily trade disclosures. The latest purchase was worth approximately $13.4 million at Thursday’s closing price of $69.69.
The transaction followed Wednesday’s purchase of 188,665 shares across the same two funds, valued at approximately $12.4 million using that day’s closing price of $65.78. Based on the respective closing prices, the combined purchases totaled an estimated $25.8 million. The calculation does not reflect the actual prices ARK paid for the shares.
CoreWeave Shares Swing as Nvidia Addresses Financing Concerns The purchases came during a sharp selloff in CoreWeave shares. The stock dropped 15.46% on Wednesday before staging a volatile recovery Thursday, when it touched a new 52-week low of $59.51 and then rebounded 5.94% to close at $69.69.
During Thursday’s session, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg that CoreWeave’s financial strength was improving and its cost of capital was declining. He also said he saw no need for Nvidia to provide a financial backstop to the company, an assessment that contrasted with the recent rise in yields on CoreWeave’s unsecured bonds.
Nvidia already has a separate commercial agreement with CoreWeave, initially valued at $6.3 billion, that requires it to purchase residual unsold cloud-computing capacity through April 2032, subject to contractual conditions. The arrangement, disclosed in a September 2025 SEC filing, is a commercial purchase commitment rather than a debt guarantee.
Friday’s premarket decline wiped out about 85% of Thursday’s $3.91-per-share gain, leaving the stock slightly above its Wednesday closing price.
Financing Costs Draw Fresh Analyst Scrutiny Morningstar lowered its CoreWeave valuation to $108 from $115, according to a Friday report. The research firm cited financing risks, noting that lower rates on the company’s delayed-draw term loans did not guarantee additional investment-grade financing. It also flagged competition for capital from larger hyperscalers with stronger credit profiles.
On Thursday, Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz lowered his price target on CoreWeave to $88 from $115, a reduction of approximately 23.5%, while maintaining a Neutral rating.
During the second quarter, CoreWeave reported $9.4 billion in capital expenditures against revenue of $2.58 billion, illustrating the scale of its ongoing infrastructure expansion.
As of June 30, CoreWeave carried approximately $35.1 billion in borrowings and another $16.5 billion in operating and finance lease liabilities, according to its second-quarter SEC filing. Its second-quarter net interest expense reached $640 million.
According to Reuters, CoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator told employees in a Wednesday memo that the company’s contracted backlog was large enough to cover its debt obligations with room to spare.
The company reported approximately $104.2 billion in revenue backlog as of June 30, excluding more than $25 billion in additional customer commitments secured early in the third quarter. That backlog represents expected future revenue under committed contracts, subject to service delivery requirements, rather than cash immediately available to fund operations.
At the indicated Friday premarket price, CoreWeave shares were approximately 19% below their October 9 close of $82.08.
Ark Invest co-founder Cathie Wood said Wednesday that tokenization could fundamentally change how investors take part in private and public financial markets.
Wood Highlights Ark’s ConvictionIn an X post, Wood highlighted the recent tokenization of ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), an actively managed closed-end interval fund that invests across private and public companies tied to disruptive innovation, through Securitize Corp. (NYSE: SECZ).
“Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice,” the veteran investor said.
Wood noted that tokenization “has the potential” to reshape how investors “access and participate” in private and public markets.
She added that the initiative is a “natural extension” of Ark’s core mission to “democratize” access to technological innovation.
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More About Tokenized ARKVXThe fund’s portfolio includes exposure to some of the biggest names in private technology, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Kalshi, though its biggest holding is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX).
Earn 8% APY on a Real Estate-Backed Note from $5,000
EquityMultiple's Alpine Notes have distributed $478M+ with no missed payments. Accredited investors can start with $5,000 at a fixed 8% APY for 6 months.
Through Securitize, eligible investors will gain exposure to the ARKVX portfolio using blockchain infrastructure.
Tokenization has emerged as one of the dominant financial narratives in recent years, with the total market value nearing $349 billion, according to Token Terminal. Stablecoins, including Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) and USDC (CRYPTO: USDC), account for more than 88% of the value.
Price Action: Securitize shares fell 2.56% in after-hours trading. The stock closed 5.72% lower at $10.55, according to Benzinga Pro.
SECZ maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, according to Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The AI boom runs on data centers. According to Cathie Wood, the money that builds them is overwhelmingly American.
In ARK Invest’s “In The Know” video, released in early October 2026, Wood cited Bloomberg data showing that nearly 90% of global data center financing is based in the United States.
What ARK actually said
Of all the capital flowing into data center construction worldwide, roughly nine of every ten dollars are being financed in the US, per the Bloomberg figures Wood referenced.
Wood framed the statistic as evidence of America’s lead in the AI investment race.
She tied the concentration directly to the US tax code, pointing to two features in particular.
The first is 100% first-year depreciation for qualifying assets. Normally, when a company buys expensive equipment, it writes off the cost gradually over several years. Full first-year depreciation lets a company deduct the entire cost up front.
The second factor Wood highlighted is an effective corporate tax rate of around 8%. That is the share of profits companies actually end up paying after deductions and incentives, not the headline statutory rate printed in the tax code.
The scale of the buildout
Hundreds of billions of dollars in debt and project financing have been reported for AI data centers.
Data center systems spending has been projected to triple to $1.4 trillion over five years, a forecast dating from January 2026.
ARK’s October 2026 portfolio changes emphasized exposure to AI infrastructure, which lines up with the thesis Wood presented on camera.
What this means
If nearly 90% of the money is landing in one country, the businesses absorbing that capital are concentrated there too.
Concentration cuts both ways. When so much of a global buildout depends on one jurisdiction’s tax code, that code becomes a single point of failure. Incentives like full first-year depreciation are policy choices, and policy choices can change.
The debt load is the other thing to watch. Hundreds of billions in borrowing for AI data centers means lenders are betting that demand for computing power keeps rising fast enough to service those loans.
Investors following Wood’s thesis should track two signals closely: any changes to the tax provisions she credited, and whether reported financing volumes keep pace with the spending forecasts projected to reach $1.4 trillion.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Gold’s price swings are now affecting corporate dealmaking, with Perseus Mining’s chief executive saying companies struggle to agree on valuations.
Craig Jones said mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity remains high, but not many deals are reaching completion.
Gold’s Takeover Wave Hits a Valuation WallReuters noted that elevated bullion prices have driven a string of mergers among producers. Northern Star Resources took over De Grey Mining, and Equinox Gold folded in Calibre Mining.
Several larger deals have stalled, however. Zijin Gold’s planned $4 billion takeover of Allied Gold collapsed before closing. Northern Star also rebuffed an A$38.7 billion approach from Gold Fields.
Perseus itself let its bid for explorer Predictive Discovery lapse last year after rival Robex Resources improved its offer. Jones told Reuters the gold outlook is shaping how companies commit to transactions.
“Companies are trying to work out what gold prices will do before making transaction decisions,” he said.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) flagged a similar problem across global M&A. It said execution, including bridging valuation gaps, has replaced funding as the main bottleneck.
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A $4,000 Floor Meets a Stronger Dollar CallJones explained that disagreements over where gold prices are headed are creating a divide between buyers and sellers.
“Some companies have more aggressive assumptions and some more conservative assumptions,” he stated.
Each company must then decide whether a deal’s risk-reward makes sense, he added. That judgment rests heavily on the gold price, which has swung sharply in 2026.
The precious metal rose about 25% from the start of the year to its late January record, according to TradingView. By mid-July, it had dropped roughly 8% below its January 1 level. Gold prices now sit 4.34% lower for 2026.
Gold Prices in 2026. Source: TradingViewThe Kobeissi Letter has said 2026 could end as gold futures’ most volatile year in more than 4 decades. Forecasters remain split on where prices go from here.
Morgan Stanley favors gold over a 12-month view. Amy Gower, its head of metals and mining strategy, sees $4,000 as a strong floor, pointing to steady central bank buying.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood leans the other way. She expects a much stronger dollar and argues tighter Fed policy could reverse some of the dollar’s losses against gold.
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Bank of America: Bonds are truly attractive for the first time in decades; U.S. stocks may deliver lower returns than U.S. bonds over the next decade.
Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. Equity and Quantitative Strategy at Bank of America, said bonds have become a truly competitive alternative asset to the stock market for the first time in decades. She also warned that current investor sentiment is elevated, making the stock market more vulnerable to negative surprises and leaving relatively limited room for further upside beyond expectations. Subramanian noted that the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has now topped 5%, while Bank of America’s own valuation models project the S&P 500’s annualized return over the next 10 years may not hit that level. She pointed out that U.S. policymakers are working to prevent long-term interest rates from rising too high, with both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Secretary closely monitoring developments at the long end of the yield curve. Meanwhile, demographic shifts mean the ceiling for U.S. interest rates may be lower than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, artificial intelligence is likely to bring certain deflationary effects in the future, which could ease long-term inflation and interest rate pressures. Against this backdrop, Subramanian believes the environment for allocating to bonds is becoming more favorable, as U.S. Treasury yields are unlikely to sustainably rise above 6% to 7%.
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Ethereum falls below $2,600
According to HTX market data, Ethereum has fallen below $2,600, with a 3.84% decline in the past 24 hours.
5 minutes ago
Bitget has launched 4 stock perpetual contracts including USDE and VKTX.
According to an official announcement, Bitget has launched four stock perpetual contracts: USDESTOCK (StablecoinX), VKTX (Viking Therapeutics), PCVX (Vaxcyte), and XP (XP). The contracts are settled in USDT, support up to 20x leverage, and enable 24/7 trading. As of now, Bitget’s platform offers a total of 337 stock contract underlying assets.
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Bitget’s Peer Program real-time prize pool has hit 3.49 million USDT.
According to Bitget’s official data, the real-time cumulative prize pool for its “Peer Program” has reached 3.49 million USDT. Prior data shows that the program’s first two batches have distributed nearly 2.8 million USDT in total rewards to over 1.5 million users. The campaign will run until October 26. During the event, Bitget will allocate 30% of the platform’s transaction fee revenue to establish a dedicated user prize pool, and eligible users can participate in the reward distribution without registration.
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G7 announces the release of 100 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves, while Europe declines to add to its inventories: Most of the volume is likely just the fulfillment of old quotas set in March.
According to Bloomberg, citing internal EU meeting minutes, EU member states generally hold that the G7’s announcement last week of a coordinated release of 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel does not require Europe to further draw down strategic reserves on a large scale beyond its prior commitments. The EU is inclined to cap subsequent releases at the volume agreed in March this year, meaning there may be a significant gap between the G7’s cited "100 million barrels" and actual new supply going forward. The G7 previously announced that, under the coordination of the International Energy Agency (IEA), it would release a total of 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel over the next four months, and called for diesel to be prioritized and brought forward significantly in the first 20 days. However, as of now, no EU member state has explicitly committed to additional inventory releases within this timeframe. In March this year, IEA members agreed on a plan to release around 400 million barrels of strategic crude oil and refined products, with EU member states collectively accounting for roughly 20% of that volume. As of early October, about two-thirds of the quota has been released, with the remaining part still to be fulfilled. The EU’s current mainstream stance is to fulfill existing commitments rather than expand the overall release volume; some member states have called on the IEA to first assess the impact of prior releases on the market and energy security. On the diesel front, Europe may agree to bring forward its existing quota originally scheduled for later release, but is reluctant to add extra volumes. European policymakers worry that, against the backdrop of fragile Middle East supply chains and rising winter energy demand, depleting strategic reserves prematurely could weaken its ability to respond to future supply shocks.
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Polygon Co-Founder Apologizes: Relevant Marketing Content Did Not Insinuate Abstract’s Shutdown
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has responded to controversial marketing content that sparked debate: Polygon’s official X (Twitter) account posted a “Polygon is not dead” announcement, which was widely interpreted as a jab at the shutdown of Abstract. He stated the content’s actual effect differed from expectations, leading to entirely misaligned readings. Nailwal added that he was also deeply shocked when he first saw the post that morning in Singapore. Sandeep clarified that the Polygon marketing team intended the line as self-deprecating—for a long time, people have been claiming “Polygon is dead”, while the network’s fundamentals have actually remained strong and improving. The team had no intention of referencing Abstract’s shutdown, he emphasized. “I have immense respect for Abstract founder Luca Netz and his team,” Nailwal said. “We would never do that, as Polygon itself has experienced the pain of terminating its own zkEVM.” He also expressed support for Luca and the Pengu team, calling Luca one of the industry’s top entrepreneurs and noting he will continue to back his team.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Venture Fund holds a $69 million position in OpenAI. Among major public funds, no one else has a bigger slice of their portfolio tied to the ChatGPT maker.
Inside the OpenAI position The OpenAI stake makes up roughly 5.26% to 5.41% of the fund’s net assets, depending on the snapshot date. The fund, which trades under the ticker ARKVX, managed around $1.3 billion in total assets as of mid-2026.
As of August 31, 2026, SpaceX held the top spot at 7.54% of the portfolio. OpenAI came second at 5.26%, followed by Anthropic at 3.86%.
Prediction market Kalshi and payments company Stripe also sit among the top holdings, based on portfolio snapshots from late August and September 2026.
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Private companies account for between 62% and 78% of the ARKVX portfolio, with the figure shifting by reporting date.
How ARK built the bet ARK first disclosed its OpenAI investment in April 2024. At that point, the position represented roughly 4% of what was then a smaller portfolio.
ARK put at least $250 million into OpenAI’s October 2024 funding round.
The fund launched in September 2022 with a minimum investment of $500, opening the door to retail buyers who do not meet accredited investor thresholds for income or net worth.
The Ethereum angle On September 24, 2026, ARK announced a tokenization initiative for the fund. Eligible US investors can now acquire ARKVX shares on Ethereum using USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin. The portfolio structure and performance measures stay the same.
Redemptions remain capped on a quarterly basis, typically at 5% of shares.
What this means for investors SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic alone account for roughly a fifth of the portfolio, concentrating exposure across a small group of private technology companies. Private holdings do not trade on an exchange, so their marked values update less often than public stocks. Investors should treat the $69 million figure as a point-in-time snapshot rather than a live price.
The tokenization initiative places ARKVX shares onchain and settles purchases in USDC, with access limited to eligible US investors and subject to quarterly redemption limits.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Key Highlights On October 5, 2026, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest divested 90,713 shares of Twist Bioscience, totaling approximately $17.1 million. The investment firm acquired 1,482,357 shares of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, representing roughly $6.1 million in value. ARK accumulated 96,308 shares of Intellia Therapeutics in a transaction worth approximately $1.18 million. The firm also added 115,472 shares of Veracyte valued at roughly $5.29 million while divesting positions in 10x Genomics and CareDx. Recursion Pharmaceuticals experienced a surge exceeding 16% on Monday, while Intellia awaits a critical FDA ruling scheduled for March 10, 2027. Cathie Wood’s [[LINK_START_1]]ARK Invest[[LINK_END_1]] executed multiple portfolio adjustments throughout its exchange-traded funds on Monday, October 5, 2026. Trade disclosure documents were published by the firm the following Tuesday morning.
Through its ARKK and ARKG funds, ARK divested 90,713 shares of Twist Bioscience. The transaction generated approximately $17.1 million in proceeds.
The October sale marks ARK’s second disposition of Twist Bioscience holdings this month. Previously, the investment manager offloaded 46,931 shares on September 29.
ARK’s New Acquisitions The investment firm purchased 1,482,357 shares of Recursion Pharmaceuticals. This acquisition, executed through the ARKK and ARKG funds, totaled approximately $6.1 million.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., RXRX
Recursion Pharmaceuticals operates as a biotechnology enterprise leveraging artificial intelligence technology for pharmaceutical discovery. The company’s stock price climbed more than 16% during Monday’s trading session.
The biotech firm recently announced an extension of its data-licensing partnership with Tempus, now running through 2029. Market analysts maintain a consensus 12-month price objective of $7.22 for Recursion shares, per Koyfin data.
Additionally, ARK accumulated 96,308 shares of Intellia Therapeutics. The transaction carried an estimated value of $1.18 million.
This purchase builds upon previous acquisitions. Since September 29, ARK has accumulated over 1,178,000 Intellia shares across multiple transactions.
Intellia currently awaits regulatory approval from the FDA for its primary therapeutic candidate, designed to treat hereditary angioedema. The agency’s determination is expected by March 10, 2027.
Investment bank Barclays recently initiated research coverage on Intellia with an “Underweight” recommendation. The firm established a price objective of $8, suggesting potential downside of 36% from present trading levels.
Through its ARKG fund, ARK also acquired 115,472 shares of Veracyte. This purchase represented approximately $5.29 million in capital deployment.
Veracyte recently disclosed Phase 3 clinical trial results. The findings demonstrated that its Decipher Prostate diagnostic test can effectively identify prostate cancer patients likely to benefit from combined hormone therapy and radiation treatment protocols.
ARK’s Portfolio Reductions Beyond Twist Bioscience, ARK liquidated positions in two additional portfolio companies on Monday.
The investment manager sold 27,277 shares of 10x Genomics. This divestment generated approximately $2.55 million.
ARK further reduced its holdings by selling 22,271 shares of CareDx. That transaction yielded roughly $1.5 million in proceeds.
Twist Bioscience stock advanced 8.7% during Monday’s session. The equity has appreciated more than 60% throughout the preceding month.
Market observers attribute the recent rally to the company’s synthetic-DNA technology platform. Twist maintains a collaborative arrangement supporting Eli Lilly’s TuneLab AI-powered drug-discovery initiative.
10x Genomics equity climbed 4.5% on Monday and has surged more than 48% over the past month. CareDx shares gained 4% Monday, touching their highest valuation in over four years.
Through its ARKG fund alone, ARK has liquidated approximately $6 million in Twist Bioscience holdings during recent weeks. The firm maintains its practice of publishing daily trading activity each morning.
Two of Wall Street’s loudest voices are arguing about the same question: does AI break the Federal Reserve’s playbook? Bill Ackman thinks it might, in a way that fuels inflation. Cathie Wood thinks it might too, just in the opposite direction.
The ARK Invest CEO and CIO pushed back on Ackman’s warning that the Fed’s September rate hike could backfire. Her case rests on two claims: the 10-year Treasury yield sits at its long-run median, and AI inference costs are falling at a pace that makes old inflation fears look dated.
How the argument unfolded It started on September 25, 2026, when Ackman posted on X about the Fed’s 25 basis point rate increase. He suggested the move may have been a mistake.
Ackman’s concern is that AI spending may not respond to that brake pedal. If demand for AI resources is inelastic, meaning buyers keep paying regardless of cost, higher borrowing costs might not slow it down. In his framing, that could feed a self-perpetuating inflationary spiral.
Wood replied on September 29. She argued that rising interest rates reflect genuine real yields and stronger-than-expected growth, not inflation pressure creeping into the system.
The numbers behind Wood’s case Wood expanded on her view during ARK’s October “In The Know” session. Her first data point was historical. She said the current 10-year Treasury yield sits at its median dating back to 1790.
Her second point was about technology costs. Wood said AI inference costs have fallen 99.99% annually at constant performance levels.
She tied that cost collapse to demand. Wood pointed to OpenAI’s revenue run rate climbing from $20 billion to $70 billion as evidence that cheaper operations are unlocking much bigger usage.
Wood described the likely outcome as “benign deflation”, the kind where prices fall because things get cheaper to produce, not because demand is collapsing.
Two other data points sit in the backdrop of the debate. US money supply is growing at approximately 5.7%, which has not resulted in higher inflation. And 90% of global data center financing is directed toward the United States.
Why this split matters Ackman’s camp worries the Fed could raise rates and see little effect on AI spending, leaving inflation intact while other parts of the economy absorb the pain. Wood’s camp believes productivity gains and cost-cutting technology can support sustained growth alongside lower or stable inflation.
What this means for investors There are clear signals to watch. One is whether AI inference costs keep falling at the rate Wood describes, and whether that shows up in broader price data. Another is whether demand figures like OpenAI’s revenue run rate keep climbing, which would support her claim that cheaper AI drives volume rather than price hikes.
The Fed’s next moves matter too. If policymakers keep tightening and inflation stays contained, Wood’s thesis gains ground. If prices keep rising despite higher rates, Ackman’s concern about an insulated AI sector starts looking less theoretical.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
AI agents are entering a new phase, moving beyond simply providing answers to making financial decisions and conducting transactions. This evolution is causing investors and major technology companies to reconsider how machine-driven commerce will be powered and which financial networks will benefit.
AI agents and decentralized financeCathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, said at Robinhood’s Summit in Houston that investors should now “follow the agents” to identify coming trends in technology. Wood referred to AI agents—software programs capable of performing tasks on behalf of users—as the next major area for investor focus. She stated that as these agents become more autonomous, their choices could significantly influence which networks and services rise to prominence.
Developers have historically indicated momentum in technology adoption since they tend to be early adopters of valuable tools. As AI agents start making independent choices regarding payment methods and service providers, their aggregated behavior could serve as an indicator of shifting demand in the digital economy.
Industry experts suggest that stablecoins and blockchain technologies are increasingly positioned to become essential payment rails for AI agents. With the automation of transactions like purchasing data, renting computing power or securing digital services, blockchains could enable these payments to occur directly between software agents, bypassing the need for traditional intermediaries.
The battle for agentic finance infrastructureJoseph Chalom, co-CEO of SharpLink and previously head of digital assets at BlackRock, recently argued that the development of agentic finance should remain open, rather than being dominated by a small set of banks or technology companies. In a recent post, Chalom emphasized the importance of maintaining user control over how much authority is delegated to AI agents and preserving the ability to revoke such permissions or monitor agent activity.
In his analysis, Chalom stated that open blockchains like Ethereum could operate as universal financial networks for agents, apps and companies, removing the need for a single technology provider or bank to control every transaction across the system.
He further highlighted the importance of letting users transfer their AI agents—including identity and permissions—between financial providers, thus preventing lock-in to any single company. This approach would mirror number portability in the telecom sector, giving users more flexibility and control.
BlackRock’s research has taken a similar view. The asset manager noted that as AI agents increasingly carry out tasks such as paying for API calls, accessing data, or purchasing cloud computing time, there will be a growing need for payment systems tailored to machine-to-machine transactions.
Stablecoins and payment protocols for AI agentsStablecoins have the potential to provide always-on, programmable transactions, while blockchain payment protocols can facilitate direct micropayments between software systems. Coinbase has responded to this trend with its x402 initiative, designed to let machines pay for key online resources without human involvement for each payment.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently commented on X that Grok is currently the platform’s most active client among agentic traders, signalling early adoption, though no specific usage figures were released.
At the same time, established financial and technology companies are exploring their own solutions. Stripe, Visa, Google and OpenAI are all developing ways for AI agents to interact with traditional and modern payment systems, and BlackRock projected that conventional payment rails will continue to play a role even as new alternatives emerge.
Investor focus on payment networks and toolsThis competitive landscape highlights why Wood’s guidance to “follow the agents” is now relevant for crypto investors and industry observers. If AI agents become central economic actors, tracking how they transact will be crucial in assessing whether new payment technologies—such as stablecoins and blockchains—gain practical traction or whether agent-driven commerce remains anchored in traditional systems.
Given the rapidly shifting market, investors are increasingly seeking integrated and privacy-focused solutions for monitoring charts, news, and portfolios. In a market where a single Fed decision or a sudden altcoin listing can change everything in seconds, the need for responsive tools is growing. Privacy-first apps like CryptoAppsy are gaining traction among active traders, enabling real-time monitoring, smart price notifications, and access to critical macroeconomic data without requiring users to create accounts or switch between multiple platforms.
If AI agents continue to assume greater roles in handling digital transactions, both investors and developers will likely pay close attention to which networks gain adoption—whether on open blockchains, centralized systems, or a combination of both.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said that as AI Agents evolve from answering questions to performing tasks and making actual purchases on behalf of users, investors may soon need to shift from "tracking developers" to "tracking AI Agents" to monitor which software, services, and financial networks they choose. Wood told the Robinhood Summit, "We may increasingly talk about 'tracking agents'." She believes that if millions of AI Agents can independently choose which tools and services to use in the future, their actual activities could become a new metric for tracking tech demand and capital flows. This trend is also driving the development of "Agentic Finance." SharpLink Co-CEO and former BlackRock Digital Assets head Joseph Chalom said AI Agents need payment permissions that are controllable, revocable, and traceable. For example, a user could authorize an agent to spend up to $500 on hotel bookings, while retaining the ability to revoke permissions and view transaction history at any time. Chalom noted that open blockchains like Ethereum could serve as shared financial networks for AI Agents, applications, and enterprises, enabling AI Agents to complete payments without a single bank or tech company acting as an intermediary. BlackRock has previously stated that AI Agents may use stablecoins to pay for API calls, data, and computing power in the future. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong previously said Grok is already one of the main clients for "agent traders" on Coinbase, though he did not disclose specific trading data. Meanwhile, companies including Stripe, Visa, Google, and OpenAI are developing AI Agent payment solutions, accelerating competition between traditional payment networks and blockchains.
ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that cost reductions driven by innovative platforms like AI will gradually permeate broader economic sectors, lifting productivity and corporate profitability, and pushing inflation to levels lower than most investors anticipate—this is the so-called "benign deflation". Wood noted that current AI inference costs are falling by 99.99% annually while performance remains consistent. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate has surged from $20 billion to $70 billion, a sign that falling costs are spurring rapid demand growth. ARK Invest projects real GDP growth could hit high single digits, a forecast most dismiss as "crazy"; in an environment of stronger real growth, interest rates may actually rise.
Key Highlights ARK Invest purchased 233,482 shares of Rocket Lab valued at approximately $16.4 million on October 1. The investment firm offloaded 20,805 Palantir shares valued at around $4 million during the same trading session. Additional purchases included BWX Technologies, Intellia Therapeutics, and Veracyte stocks. ARK reduced holdings in Alphabet and liquidated a minor Zillow stake. Analysts assign Rocket Lab a Strong Buy consensus with 56% potential upside, compared to Palantir’s Moderate Buy rating with 6% upside potential. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest executed multiple strategic stock transactions on Thursday, October 1, according to the firm’s publicly disclosed trading activity. The moves included significant acquisitions and strategic exits across several positions.
The investment management company acquired 233,482 shares of Rocket Lab distributed across three different ARK funds. This combined purchase represented an investment totaling approximately $16.4 million.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc., RKLB
Simultaneously, ARK divested 20,805 shares of Palantir Technologies. This divestment generated proceeds valued at nearly $4 million.
Year-to-date performance shows Rocket Lab shares climbing roughly 1%. Meanwhile, Palantir has posted gains of approximately 7% over the identical timeframe.
Rocket Lab Secures Major Launch Agreement and Expands Revenue Rocket Lab achieved a milestone by securing its most substantial commercial contract for the Electron launch vehicle. The agreement encompasses 20 additional launches for Japanese firm Synspective.
This expansion brings Synspective’s total mission count with Rocket Lab to 47. The robust pipeline provides enhanced revenue visibility for the aerospace company.
Rocket Lab delivered second-quarter revenue of $234 million, representing a 62% year-over-year increase compared to the prior-year period.
Development continues on the company’s Neutron launch vehicle. Additionally, Rocket Lab is pursuing the proposed acquisition of satellite communications provider Iridium Communications.
Wall Street sentiment toward Rocket Lab remains predominantly bullish. Among 16 covering analysts, 14 maintain Buy ratings while 2 assign Hold recommendations.
The consensus price target stands at $110.07 for Rocket Lab shares, implying 56% upside potential from present trading levels.
Palantir Demonstrates Robust Commercial Revenue Acceleration Palantir posted second-quarter revenue of $1.94 billion, marking a 93% surge versus the year-ago quarter. U.S. commercial revenue specifically jumped 149% to $764 million.
The data analytics platform provider executed 220 contracts valued at $1 million or higher throughout the quarter, demonstrating sustained enterprise demand for its software solutions.
Strategic partnerships have expanded Palantir’s ecosystem, including collaborative agreements with Nebius, PwC, and Armada.
Analyst sentiment on Palantir remains favorable, albeit with less enthusiasm than Rocket Lab receives. Out of 22 analysts tracking the stock, 16 recommend Buy, 4 suggest Hold, and 2 advise Sell.
Palantir’s consensus price target registers at $201.74, representing approximately 6% appreciation from current valuation levels.
ARK’s trading activity extended beyond these two positions. The firm acquired shares in BWX Technologies, which manufactures nuclear energy components, totaling roughly $13.6 million in value.
The investment manager also expanded its holdings in Intellia Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on gene editing. This transaction was valued at approximately $5 million.
ARK added shares of Veracyte, a company specializing in genomic diagnostic testing, with purchases exceeding $7.3 million.
Regarding divestments, ARK decreased its Alphabet position by selling 101 shares. The firm also eliminated a minor Zillow position valued at roughly $20,000.
These transactions form part of ARK’s standard practice of publishing daily trade disclosures across all its actively managed exchange-traded funds.
Key Takeaways Tesla shares declined approximately 1% during Wednesday’s premarket session. The electric vehicle manufacturer arranged $30 billion in fresh credit lines earmarked for AI, energy storage, and chip manufacturing initiatives. Tesla received SEC authorization for a voluntary retail shareholder voting system before its 2026 shareholder meeting. ARK Innovation ETF, managed by Cathie Wood, acquired $17.28 million in TSLA stock on Tuesday. Year-to-date performance shows TSLA down 22%, while Wall Street analysts project potential 11% gains ahead. Tesla (TSLA) stock experienced a roughly 1% decline in Wednesday’s premarket hours. The pullback occurred as market participants digested news of a substantial $30 billion credit arrangement and regulatory approval for a new shareholder engagement initiative.
Tesla, Inc., TSLA
The credit facility announcement emerged first. In a regulatory submission filed Tuesday, Tesla revealed it has secured access to $30 billion in additional borrowing capacity.
The arrangement consists of three distinct components: a $20 billion delayed-draw term loan structure, an $8 billion revolving credit line with a five-year duration, and a shorter-term $2 billion facility with a 364-day maturity period.
According to Tesla’s disclosure, none of these credit lines had been utilized as of September 29. Furthermore, the automaker indicated it has no plans to draw down these resources throughout 2026.
These new arrangements supersede a previous $5 billion revolving credit agreement that wasn’t scheduled to expire until January 2028. Essentially, Tesla has exchanged a more modest financial backstop for substantially greater liquidity access.
Capital Deployment Strategy Tesla’s planned capital spending for 2026 exceeds $25 billion. According to company statements, the newly secured credit will finance investments across AI computational infrastructure, solar cell production capacity, and a collaborative semiconductor manufacturing venture being pursued alongside SpaceX (SPCX).
LSEG’s consensus analyst projections anticipate Tesla will generate negative free cash flow totaling $9.78 billion. This forecast highlights the significant capital requirements associated with the company’s aggressive expansion strategy.
In parallel developments, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Tesla’s voluntary retail shareholder voting initiative. This framework enables individual investors to establish standing voting instructions aligned with board recommendations in advance of the 2026 annual shareholder gathering.
Participants in this program retain full flexibility to customize their preferences, selecting specific proposals to include or exclude from their standing instructions. Additionally, shareholders can modify or revoke their instructions at any point.
The program’s timing has generated market chatter, particularly given persistent rumors regarding a potential Tesla-SpaceX combination. Such a transaction could have significant ramifications for Elon Musk’s executive compensation arrangements.
ARK Innovation Increases Tesla Stake The ARK Innovation ETF, led by Cathie Wood, acquired 48,352 Tesla shares on September 29. The transaction totaled approximately $17.28 million and occurred during a trading session where TSLA declined 1%.
Wood has consistently viewed Tesla through a lens that extends well beyond traditional automotive manufacturing. Her investment thesis emphasizes the company’s potential in autonomous vehicle technology, artificial intelligence applications, and robotics development over conventional car sales metrics.
According to TipRanks data, Tesla maintains a Moderate Buy consensus rating. This assessment reflects 12 Buy recommendations, 12 Hold ratings, and two Sell opinions.
The consensus analyst price target stands at $391.40, suggesting approximately 11% appreciation potential from present trading levels.
Tesla stock has declined 22% year-to-date. The equity continues to generate intense discussion among Wall Street professionals as 2026 progresses into its second half.
ARK Invest, a prominent US asset management firm led by Cathie Wood, has brought its flagship venture capital strategy onto the blockchain by tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund on Ethereum. Collaborating with Securitize, ARK Invest is enabling certain investors to access private market holdings like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Stripe via blockchain-powered channels. This initiative, announced on September 24, marks the company’s first move into fund tokenization and is considered one of the largest such efforts in the venture space to date.
Fund structure and blockchain integrationInstead of directly tokenizing shares in the underlying portfolio companies, the ARK Venture Fund provides a regulated, blockchain-based tokenized interest in the fund itself. This approach leverages public blockchains for fund administration and broadens access to private technology firms that have attracted rising investor demand, especially in the artificial intelligence sector.
The fund’s tokenized share class, ARKVX, trades on Securitize’s platform. Ethereum functions as the settlement network for ARK Venture Fund’s $1.3 billion portfolio, making on-chain proof of ownership possible for select investors via digital tokens.
ARK Venture Fund operates as an actively managed closed-end interval fund. As of August 31, 2026, net assets stood at $1.3 billion. The portfolio typically holds between 25 and 50 assets, blending private positions—such as OpenAI (5.26%), Anthropic (3.86%), and Stripe—with public equities including Tesla and Coinbase. Notable allocations also include SpaceX at 7.54%, alongside Databricks and Figure AI.
For eligible investors, access is limited to the ARK Venture Fund itself and does not represent direct equity in portfolio companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. Securitize, which manages over $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets, serves as the issuer and administrator for ARKVX. Subscriptions are accepted in USDC, with a minimum investment of $500, and tokens are distributed following net asset value determination. The offering remains restricted to qualified investors and is not open to the general public.
Mini dictionary: Securitize, a digital asset securities platform, specializes in tokenizing traditional investment funds and private company shares for compliant blockchain trading and administration.
Regulatory developments and trading mechanicsOn September 21, the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a modified order for the ARK Venture Fund, permitting ARKVX holdings to be tracked using a distributed ledger and to trade through regulated alternative trading systems and quotation facilities.
Given the interval fund structure, share repurchases only occur periodically through scheduled offers that may be oversubscribed. Currently, Securitize does not expect a secondary trading market for ARKVX in the near future. This setup distinguishes ARK Venture Fund from tokenized money market funds such as BlackRock’s BUIDL, which offers daily liquidity, anchoring it instead in a model typical of private-market infrastructure where blockchain use centers on administrative transparency rather than on immediate tradability.
FundSubscriptionLiquidityPlatformARK Venture Fund (ARKVX)USDC, $500 minimumPeriodic buybacks onlySecuritize (Ethereum)BlackRock BUIDLRegular cash investmentsDaily redemptionVarious (private blockchains)Leadership perspectives and industry implicationsCathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, emphasized that trading the ARK Venture Fund token exemplifies a tangible step forward for blockchain adoption in capital markets. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo commented that the fund’s on-chain launch showcases how established fund managers are embracing new technologies. The partnership between ARK Invest and Securitize was strengthened after ARK Invest participated in a funding round for Securitize in October 2025, underpinning their cooperation on ARKVX issuance.
Trading the ARK Venture Fund token demonstrates how established managers are able to place existing investment products onto blockchain rails, offering streamlined access and transparent ownership registration.
Broader impact on private markets and tokenization trendsIn the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, ARK Invest’s initiative cements Ethereum’s status as a preferred settlement network for compliant real-world asset tokenization. Securitize has previously supported offerings for large institutions such as BlackRock and Hamilton Lane, but the ARK Venture Fund brings tokenization into the traditionally inaccessible realm of venture capital, where operational hurdles once discouraged broader institutional participation.
For eligible buyers, the fund’s structure removes some obstacles to investing in private artificial intelligence companies previously limited to specialist venture capital vehicles. Industry observers are watching whether Securitize will eventually migrate ARKVX to other chains, whether alternative trading systems will list the token for secondary trading, and whether investor demand will hold up as on-chain share repurchase programs become available.
While the fund’s interval structure may restrict liquidity, ARK Venture Fund’s tokenization may serve as a prototype for other venture funds seeking to expand investor access, combining private technology exposure with blockchain-based recordkeeping and administration.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood says stocks can keep rising with the 10-year Treasury yield above 5%. She argues that higher rates show a market working without heavy Fed control.
Her comments followed a chart from ARK’s Frank Downing that plots yields and the S&P 500 since 1980. It shows the 10-year yield at 5.18% and the index near 7,743.
Why Cathie Wood Welcomes Higher RatesWood wrote on X that the Fed, not the market, was in charge when rates sat between 0.5% and 2%. Today, she says, the market is working again.
She also pointed to 2017. That year, the Fed raised rates, yet long-duration stocks had a strong run, according to Wood.
At 0.5-2% interest rates, the “market”was not working. The Fed was in control.
Today, the market is working.
In 2017, interest rates increased as the Fed put the market on training wheels. Long duration equities had a fabulous year.
Let the market work! https://t.co/FV1KCVSe3x
— Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood) September 30, 2026
Her September 22 investor letter makes a longer case. Drawing on 230 years of data, Wood argues that the slide in rates from 1981 to 2021 was the outlier. Before the Great Depression, yields of 5% to 6% were normal.
Is the 10-Year Treasury Yield a Threat to Stocks?Wood expects long-term yields to approach 5% to 6% as technology lifts productivity and growth. She also sees short-term rates climbing to 6% to 8% alongside nominal growth.
Meanwhile, she says real-time data shows cooler inflation than official figures suggest. For example, Truflation, an independent daily inflation tracker, put July headline inflation at 2.5%. By comparison, the government’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index showed 3.7%.
As a result, Wood suggests balanced portfolios could hold more stocks than the classic 60/40 split. Goldman Sachs’ Anshul Sehgal has made a similar call, favoring AI over bonds.
Still, not everyone shares her calm. Janus Henderson macro head Michael Contopoulos warned that the market is nearing its top as Fed tightening lifts yields.
Traders are also weighing a possible October Fed rate hike, which could hit risk assets, including Bitcoin.
Whether earnings can grow faster than borrowing costs may decide who is right. For now, Wood is betting that higher rates and higher stock prices can coexist.
TLDR Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest offloaded more than 181,000 Advanced Micro Devices shares valued at approximately $110 million. The investment firm simultaneously acquired over 356,000 Nvidia shares worth about $81.6 million. ARK purchased Tesla stock valued at $17.28 million via its Innovation ETF. The Securities and Exchange Commission greenlit Tesla’s innovative voluntary program enabling retail investors to automatically align their votes with board recommendations. Tesla shares experienced modest gains in extended trading hours after the SEC announcement. On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest executed significant portfolio trades across multiple positions. The investment firm’s exchange traded funds disclosed their daily transaction activity, revealing substantial shifts in several key holdings.
The firm divested 181,767 shares of Advanced Micro Devices across four separate ARK funds. This divestment totaled approximately $110.5 million and represents a continuation of ARK’s strategy to trim its semiconductor manufacturer position in recent months.
Concurrently, ARK accumulated 356,681 shares of Nvidia through the identical fund group. This acquisition carried a price tag of approximately $81.6 million.
NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA
ARK Expands Tesla Position and Additional Portfolio Moves Through its Innovation fund, ARK acquired 48,352 shares of Tesla, representing an investment of approximately $17.28 million.
The investment firm executed several other significant transactions. ARK purchased Broadcom shares totaling $26.6 million and CoreWeave shares valued at $21.6 million.
Additionally, ARK expanded its Intellia Therapeutics stake with approximately $2.3 million in purchases. The firm also acquired Veracyte shares worth $5.4 million.
Among divestments, ARK trimmed positions in Tempus AI, Twist Bioscience, 10x Genomics, and Zillow. The 10x Genomics sale represented the most substantial reduction at $38.5 million.
Minor transactions included acquisitions of Airbnb, Block, and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. shares. ARK also liquidated a modest number of Alphabet shares.
Tesla Shares React to SEC Regulatory Approval Tesla stock declined 1.29% during Tuesday’s standard trading hours. The shares reversed course in after-hours trading following the release of significant regulatory news.
The price movement came after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Tesla’s novel program designed for retail shareholders. The initiative allows individual investors to automatically align their proxy votes with the company’s board recommendations.
The program enables participants to have their shares automatically vote according to board guidance on most proposals. Investors retain the option to exclude contested director elections and certain major corporate transactions from this automatic voting feature.
The program is available to shareholders at no cost. Enrollment can be completed through Tesla directly, their brokerage firm, or a proxy voting service provider.
Participants maintain complete flexibility to modify or terminate their voting preferences at any time. Tesla states the initiative aims to increase retail investor participation in corporate governance decisions.
Tesla cited data revealing that retail investors cast ballots for only 28% of their shares in 2025. This contrasts sharply with the 76.6% voting rate among institutional investors.
The SEC approval arrives as market participants monitor potential developments regarding a SpaceX transaction. Any such arrangement could generate additional scrutiny of Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation structure, although no transaction has been officially announced.
Analysts maintain a Moderate Buy consensus rating on Tesla shares. This assessment derives from 12 Buy recommendations, 12 Hold ratings, and two Sell ratings published during the last three months.
The consensus price target among Wall Street analysts stands at $391.40 per share. This target implies potential upside of approximately 11% from present trading levels.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is tokenizing its ARK Venture Fund with Securitize, putting it on the Ethereum blockchain. The fund owns stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX.
OpenAI and Anthropic do not trade on any stock exchange. ARK and Securitize announced the move on Sept. 24. Bloomberg reported the fund’s size at about $1.3 billion.
What the ARK Venture Fund Onchain Offers InvestorsTokenizing means recording ownership as a digital token on a blockchain, a public ledger anyone can check. Eligible investors buying through Securitize get exposure to the fund’s portfolio this way, according to the release.
That portfolio is mostly private. About 78% of the fund sat in companies without a public stock ticker as of August 31, ARK’s holdings file shows. SpaceX was the top position at 7.54%. OpenAI made up 5.26% and Anthropic 3.86%.
ARK first opened this door in September 2022. It launched the fund with a $500 minimum, calling venture capital a market long reserved for wealthy investors, its announcement said.
The catch is the exit. The fund is an interval fund, so it buys back shares only at set times. Its prospectus schedules those buybacks quarterly, and the release warns they may be oversubscribed. ARK says no secondary market is expected to develop.
Access also costs more. ARK’s fund page lists annual expenses of 2.9% after fee waivers.
Why ARK Is Betting on Tokenized FundsA September 21 SEC order lets the fund offer a tokenized share class. That class may trade on alternative trading systems, which are private electronic venues outside stock exchanges.
“Based on our research, tokenization has the potential to reshape fundamentally the way that investors access and participate in both private and public financial markets,” said Cathie Wood, founder, CEO and CIO of Ark Invest.
Securitize has done this before. It tokenized BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on Ethereum in March 2024. ARK announced a strategic investment in Securitize in October 2025, and Securitize shares have rallied since the SEC opened a path for tokenized stock trading on Sept. 17.
The fund was already growing fast. Its net assets rose from $208 million in July 2025 to $558 million by January 2026, SEC filings show.
ARK Invest and Securitize announced the launch of the ARK Venture Fund’s tokenized share class, ARKVX, on September 24. This initiative will see shares of the fund issued and managed through Securitize’s regulated tokenization platform, bringing its exposure to blockchain through Ethereum.
The ARK Venture Fund is managed by ARK Invest, an asset manager known for focusing on disruptive innovation and technology investments. With the new tokenized share class, investors do not hold tokens representing direct equity in SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, or other portfolio companies. Instead, ARKVX represents a fractional interest in the regulated fund itself, which in turn holds stakes in these private and public technology firms.
Current portfolio data from ARK Invest show SpaceX makes up 7.54% of the fund, OpenAI accounts for 5.26%, and Anthropic stands at 3.86%. Other notable companies in the fund include Stripe, Crusoe, and Figure AI among a mix of private and listed technology ventures.
The new structure allows investors to buy tokenized interests in a regulated fund with exposure to high-growth technology companies, but not in the underlying companies themselves.
Eligible investors must participate through Securitize’s official platform, which provides the technical and regulatory infrastructure to facilitate compliant onchain issuance and transfers.
Mini dictionary: Securitize is a US-based digital asset securities firm specializing in the compliant issuance and management of tokenized securities, providing regulated infrastructure for onchain asset management.
Ethereum as the Settlement LayerSecuritize has stated that the ARKVX share class will settle and transfer on Ethereum’s blockchain, taking advantage of its smart contract capabilities for record keeping and transaction validation. However, the fundamental structure and investment framework of the ARK Venture Fund remain unchanged. As a closed-end interval fund, it continues to be actively managed, focusing on disruptive private and public market investments.
Interval funds are a specific category of investment vehicles that offer periodic repurchase opportunities, rather than continuous secondary market trading. This means holders of ARKVX retain exposure to technological growth but must participate in scheduled liquidity windows, as opposed to instant tradability sometimes associated with blockchain-based assets.
Fund AttributeTraditional StructureTokenized ARKVXOwnership RecordOffchain (Registrar)Onchain (Ethereum)LiquidityPeriodic RepurchasePeriodic RepurchaseUnderlying AssetsPrivate & Public Tech CompaniesPrivate & Public Tech CompaniesInvestor AccessTraditional PlatformSecuritize PlatformThe tokenization adds a new digital rail but does not affect the fund’s core liquidity or access to underlying company equity. ARK Invest emphasized that while trading onchain can sound more liquid, the interval fund format means liquidity remains governed by official repurchase periods.
Moving tokenized funds onchain updates ownership and settlement processes, but it leaves the fundamental investment and redemption structures intact.
Growth in Tokenized Real-World AssetsARK Invest has advocated for the continued growth of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) within traditional finance. The firm believes tokenization could expand market access and potentially unlock a multi-trillion-dollar segment for investors seeking exposure to disruptive technology.
This launch aligns with a broader industry shift as funds and securities increasingly leverage blockchain for efficiency, transparency, and broader investor reach.
According to HTX market data, major crypto tokens saw slight volatility over the weekend. Bitcoin fell below $84,000 to trade at $83,900, Ethereum at $2,688, and ZEC at $1,542. SOL surged past $120 with a 24-hour gain of 3.4%. BNB is trading at $776. The total crypto market cap rose 0.3% in 24 hours to $2.989 trillion. Altcoin rotation persists, with major DeFi tokens rallying broadly. Top gainers among DeFi tokens: QI at $0.003650 (up 103.57% in 24h), QUICK at $0.01287 (up 32.82%), AERO at $0.8314 (up 18.50%), VELODROME at $0.03558 (up 16.20%), ENA at $0.2656 (up 13.94%), JTO at $0.5670 (up 13.38%), JOE at $0.0414 (up 13.11%), ZRO at $1.611 (up 11.18%); EIGEN, REZ, LDO, KMNO, MET and JUP rose but by less than 10%. Additionally, top gainers among other altcoins include: PHA at $0.0847 (up 66.40% in 24h), ARK at $0.2524 (up 29.44%), MUBARAK at $0.05650 (up 26.29%), SEI at $0.07638 (up 20.80%), SUI at $1.1773 (up 12.57%), WLD at $0.4898 (up 10.89%).
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Eligible U.S. investors can now buy the ARK Venture Fund as an Ethereum token with USDC through Securitize, while cash-outs still run through the fund’s quarterly repurchase offers.
Crypto investors can now buy into Cathie Wood's SpaceX/OpenAI/Kalshi fund
Original Image Credits: CityOfPete / flickr.com
Posted September 25, 2026 at 4:15 pm EST.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and tokenization firm Securitize announced on Sept. 24 that they have tokenized the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) on Ethereum. Eligible U.S. investors can now buy it with USDC and hold the position in their own wallets, according to Securitize’s ARKVX page.
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“Based on our research, tokenization has the potential to reshape fundamentally the way that investors access and participate in both private and public financial markets,” Wood, who founded ARK and runs it as CEO and chief investment officer, said in the release.
How the Token Works To buy, investors need a verified Securitize account and a wallet approved in advance, and they pay in USDC. The first investment carries a $500 minimum, and later additions can be as small as $5. A 2% transaction fee comes off each deposit before it is priced at the fund’s end-of-day net asset value. The fund also charges annual expenses of 3.49%, or 2.90% after fee waivers.
Securitize Markets buys the ARKVX shares behind the tokens and keeps them with custodian BNY Mellon, backing each token one-to-one. Tokens arrive in the buyer’s wallet the next business day.
Same Quarterly Exits Securitize says the token carries the same quarterly liquidity as the fund. Holders cash out through quarterly repurchase offers capped at 5% of outstanding shares, and requests may be prorated. For now, holders can send the token only to other investors Securitize has already verified. Securitize lists trading on decentralized exchanges and use as DeFi collateral as “coming soon.” The offering is open to U.S. investors only for now.
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said in the release that the launch shows asset managers can “use tokenization to move established investment products onto modern capital markets infrastructure.”
ARK announced a strategic investment in Securitize in October 2025. The launch comes a week after the SEC granted an innovation exemption for trading tokenized stocks onchain, and a day after Blockchain.com and the NYSE signed a memorandum of understanding to offer tokenized stocks to Blockchain.com’s users.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
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TLDR ARK Invest and Securitize announced the tokenization of the ARK Venture Fund on Sept. 24, 2026. The tokenized fund will launch on Ethereum, with Securitize handling onchain issuance and investor services. The fund holds about $1.3 billion in assets, with stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks. Investors get an onchain version of their fund interest, not direct tokenized shares of the portfolio companies. The fund’s NAV has risen from about $20 at its 2022 launch to roughly $60.50 as of Sept. 23, 2026. ARK Invest, the investment firm founded by Cathie Wood, is bringing its ARK Venture Fund onto the Ethereum blockchain. The firm announced the move with Securitize, a company that builds tools for tokenized assets.
The announcement came on Sept. 24, 2026. Eligible investors who access the fund through Securitize will be able to hold a blockchain-based version of their stake.
The fund had grown to roughly $1.3 billion in assets by late June. Its portfolio includes stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks, among other technology companies.
What Goes Onchain Securitize will handle the fund’s onchain issuance and the investor experience. The tokenized version will be available on Ethereum at launch.
Investors are not getting blockchain versions of OpenAI or Anthropic shares. Instead, they receive an onchain representation of their interest in the fund that owns those stakes.
The ARK Venture Fund is not an exchange-traded fund. It is an actively managed closed-end interval fund that invests in both private and public companies.
Its target mix is about 80% private companies and 20% public companies. Investors cannot sell shares whenever they want.
The fund offers quarterly repurchase windows for about 5% of outstanding shares. If too many investors ask to sell at once, requests may be reduced on a prorated basis.
“Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice,” said Wood, who serves as founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest.
Wood said the move is part of the firm’s mission to widen access to disruptive innovation. She added that Securitize has built the regulated infrastructure needed to make that possible.
Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said ARK’s investment in his company reflected a shared belief in tokenization. He said the launch shows how asset managers can move established investment products onto modern capital markets infrastructure.
ARK Invest made a strategic investment in Securitize in October 2025. That deal set the stage for the new product.
Securitize manages about $5 billion in assets as of August 2026. It works with firms such as Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck, and says it is the only company running regulated digital securities infrastructure in both the U.S. and EU.
The Fund’s Performance Since Launch The ARK Venture Fund launched on Sept. 23, 2022. Its net asset value started near $20 per share.
By Sept. 23, 2026, the NAV stood at about $60.50. That is roughly three times its starting level, before accounting for share class and distribution differences.
Returns have varied from year to year. The fund gained about 61% in 2023, 7% in 2024 and 56% in 2025.
The fund carries a net expense ratio of about 2.90% and has limited liquidity. Valuations of private holdings can change sharply when those companies raise new money.
In the second quarter of 2026, the fund returned 20.21%. ARK Invest named SpaceX and Anthropic as the biggest contributors to that gain.
So far in 2026, the fund is up around 32% through late September. Eligible investors can find details on the tokenized version at securitize.io/arkvx.
ARK Invest, the investment firm led by Cathie Wood, has announced the tokenization of its ARK Venture Fund, bringing one of its flagship products onto the Ethereum blockchain. Securitize, a provider of digital asset infrastructure, will manage the onchain issuance and investor services for the fund. This move aims to merge traditional investment funds with blockchain technology, opening up new avenues for investor participation and asset management.
Fund structure and tokenization detailsAt launch, the tokenized version of the ARK Venture Fund will be available on Ethereum, provided by Securitize. Investors who access the fund through Securitize receive a blockchain-based representation of their interest in the overall fund, rather than direct tokenized shares of companies in its portfolio, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, or Databricks.
The ARK Venture Fund operates as an actively managed closed-end interval fund, targeting a portfolio blend of around 80% private companies and 20% public companies. Unlike exchange-traded funds, this structure means shares cannot be traded freely, but the fund offers quarterly repurchase windows covering about 5% of shares outstanding. If repurchase requests exceed available shares, allocations may be reduced proportionally.
As of late June, the fund managed approximately $1.3 billion in assets. Since its launch, it has emphasized exposure to high-growth tech firms and disruptive innovation. The net asset value (NAV) per share has increased from about $20 at its September 2022 start to roughly $60.50 as of September 23, 2026.
Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts ARK Invest’s conviction in the transformation of capital markets into practice. Cathie Wood has linked this effort to the firm’s broader mission to foster wider access to disruptive innovation and highlighted Securitize’s role in delivering regulated digital asset infrastructure.
Carlos Domingo, CEO and co-founder of Securitize, referenced ARK Invest’s previous investment in Securitize and described the new launch as a milestone in integrating traditional asset management with blockchain-based markets.
Performance history and investor accessSince its launch on September 23, 2022, the ARK Venture Fund has delivered variable returns. Its NAV rose from near $20 at inception to about $60.50 in four years. Annual performance included a 61% gain in 2023, 7% in 2024, and 56% in 2025. In the second quarter of 2026, the fund returned 20.21%, driven largely by its positions in SpaceX and Anthropic. Overall, the fund gained approximately 32% through late September 2026.
The fund’s net expense ratio stands at around 2.90%. As is typical with funds focused on private companies, valuations can fluctuate significantly during new fundraising rounds. Liquidity remains limited, with share sales only permitted during scheduled quarterly windows.
The rise of tokenized assets and meme tokensThis tokenization initiative marks a broader trend across the investment landscape as asset managers explore blockchain technology to enhance access and efficiency. Alongside these developments in traditional finance, the role of investor behavior and real-time tracking has become increasingly important, especially in the rapidly evolving meme token market. For example, an internet trend recently turned a $99 investment in the “Niu Lai” token into roughly $370,000 within days, according to data from Fomo App. Monitoring not only price fluctuations but also investors’ timing and choices is proving vital in this environment. Fomo App offers a comprehensive platform that combines token discovery, trading, social feeds, investor rankings, and trade notifications, allowing users to stay connected to the dynamic world of meme tokens and investor trends.
Securitize itself manages about $5 billion in assets as of August 2026 and works with industry players such as Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck. The company claims to operate the only regulated digital securities infrastructure covering both the US and EU.
The launch of a tokenized fund by one of the industry’s most recognized firms signals a new phase in the adoption of blockchain technologies in asset management, blending regulated investment structures with the efficiencies and transparency of onchain systems.
Details and eligibility criteria for the tokenized ARK Venture Fund are available to investors via the Securitize platform.
Since our last update, the focus has shifted from adding features to making Mainsail harder to break. This cycle makes consensus safe across crashes and restarts, replaces a manipulable validator-ordering seed with RANDAO, makes the EVM faster under concurrent load and aligns it with the latest Ethereum spec, and removes a large amount of legacy code. We also expanded unit test coverage across more than two dozen packages, about half the monorepo. Several of these changes break protocol compatibility, so we’ll be launching a fresh public testnet. More on that below.
Missed the previous update? You can catch up on it here: Mainsail Levels Up: Tokens, Performance and Reliability.
Consensus Safety and Crash Resilience Consensus got the most work this cycle. Nodes now write every proposal, consensus message, and piece of round state to disk as it happens, instead of only on a clean shutdown. A validator that crashes or gets killed mid-round comes back with its lock and valid value intact and cannot sign conflicting messages. If the consensus store can’t be written, the node now stops instead of carrying on without its safety data.
We also tightened the core Tendermint rules. Lock-proof and valid-round checks are stricter, malformed proposals are now rejected as soon as they are decoded, and a proposal with a timestamp from the future gets a nil prevote instead of failing block verification. Blocks committed concurrently and leftover state from already-committed blocks are handled cleanly, and a node that is still catching up no longer tries to propose.
Node operators now get clear log lines when their validator proposes, commits, or misses a block. New multi-node functional tests cover locking, restarts, and double-sign scenarios.
Fairer Validator Selection with RANDAO The seed that shuffles validator order each round used to come from the block timestamp, which the proposer could influence. It’s now based on RANDAO: each block carries a BLS reveal from its proposer, and those reveals are mixed into an unpredictable prevrandao value. That value decides the order and is also exposed to smart contracts.
Other validator-related changes:
Registering a BLS key now requires a proof of possession, which blocks rogue-key attacks on aggregated signatures. Consensus messages now include the genesis and previous block hash in what gets signed, so they can’t be replayed on another network or fork. Consensus contract fixes: unvoting the head of a voter list now works correctly, and a round with too few active validators is now rejected instead of padded. EVM: Faster, Sturdier, Up to Date The EVM now supports only the Osaka spec, and support for the older Shanghai spec was removed. Osaka is the execution-layer part of Ethereum’s latest (Fusaka) upgrade, so contracts get the latest opcodes and behavior, and Mainsail matches what current Ethereum tooling expects.
Under the hood, the EVM can now serve many state reads at once, read commits in batches, and limit how many calls run at the same time so it stays responsive under heavy load. The storage layer also handles database growth safely instead of failing.
On correctness, several code paths that used to crash the process (panics) now return errors. The state root is now correct when a transaction fails during block building, and the block.timestamp seen by contracts and JSON-RPC is now in Unix seconds. Transaction hashes now match standard Ethereum tooling, and non-canonical RLP is rejected.
Transaction Pool and Forger Block building moved into its own @mainsail/forger package. The pool now hands transactions to the forger in batches, and the forger reuses data the pool has already validated instead of checking it again. Transaction hashing and sender recovery now run in worker threads.
We also fixed a case where a transaction could be returned twice at a batch boundary, and rebroadcast cooldowns are now cleaned up when transactions leave the pool. Pool events now include the transaction data as well.
P2P Reliability The P2P downloaders now retry the correct block range, skip blocks that are already applied instead of banning the peer, and no longer stall when a peer returns an empty proposal. A throttled endpoint no longer blocks requests to other endpoints, round statistics use bounded memory, and the internal P2P loops handle errors more reliably.
API and Sync On the API side, wallets can now filter their tokens more precisely through /wallets/{id}/tokens, including hiding specific tokens entirely. JSON-RPC batch requests are also processed in chunks now, so a large batch no longer has to be handled all at once.
Syncing from scratch got a lot smoother too. Restores now fetch receipts by block range instead of piece by piece, and validator rounds are no longer reset after every batch, which makes the whole process both faster and more reliable.
Alongside these improvements, we closed a few gaps that could cause trouble under unusual conditions. The default pagination limit can no longer exceed the configured maximum, attribute lookups now validate their keys before querying, and a race condition during database bootstrap has been fixed. The database layer itself was upgraded to TypeORM 1.0 as part of this work..
Faster Startup and Operator Tooling Nodes start noticeably faster. The NTP check and worker startup no longer block boot; the CLI is loaded only when needed, and only a few crypto workers start right away while the rest start in the background.
The configuration generator can now take the genesis validators from an external file, either as mnemonics or as presigned registrations. The MAINSAIL_NETWORK_NAME, MAINSAIL_TOKEN and MAINSAIL_VERSION environment variables were removed, and BLS keys are no longer part of validator or snapshot import.
Cleanup and Quality We removed a lot of legacy code this cycle, including BigNumber (replaced by native BigInt), lodash, and the logger-winston, networking-dns, and transactions packages. Fewer dependencies mean a smaller attack surface and a codebase that’s easier to maintain. The toolchain now uses TypeScript 7 and pnpm 12.
More than two dozen packages, about half of the monorepo, received a dedicated test-coverage pass, and many of those passes also fixed real bugs. CI now runs tests in parallel with shared build caches and produces more accurate branch-coverage reports. We also fixed a number of flaky timing-sensitive tests.
What’s Next? Test coverage: add tests to the packages that haven’t had a coverage pass yet, and grow the multi-node functional suites. Hardening, security and performance: keep hardening consensus, P2P and the transaction pool against faulty or malicious peers, and profile block processing, sync and the API under load. Public testnet reset: several of these changes break protocol compatibility, including RANDAO, proof of possession, the new message signing, and the Osaka spec, so the current testnet can’t simply upgrade. We’re targeting mid-October to launch a fresh testnet from a new genesis block with all of these changes, so they can be tested together on a live network. Production readiness: long-running soak and stress tests on multi-node networks, including validators that crash or restart and heavy transaction load. Then final steps toward a mainnet launch. Help Us Test While we prepare the testnet reset, planned for mid-October, the existing public testnet is still available. Once the new one is live, we invite developers and node operators to try it out. Run a node or a validator, deploy and interact with contracts, and use your usual Ethereum tooling against the JSON-RPC API.
Edge cases deserve special attention: validators restarting or crashing mid-round, nodes syncing from scratch, and failed or reverted transactions. Detailed feedback with clear reproduction steps helps us find and fix issues quickly.
Found an issue? Please report it on GitHub , whether it’s on the current testnet or the new one once it’s live.
Closing Thoughts This cycle wasn’t about flashy new features. It was about making sure Mainsail behaves correctly when things go wrong: validators crash, peers misbehave, and the network is under heavy load. That kind of work is less visible, but it’s what a production-grade blockchain is built on, and it brings us meaningfully closer to mainnet.
We’re excited to get this into the hands of the community. When the new testnet goes live, come break it. That’s exactly what it’s for. Follow along on GitHub , chat with other community members on the independent, community-run Discord , and watch the blog for all the latest announcements.
Key Takeaways ARK Invest deployed $25.13 million into Rocket Lab stock on September 22 across three different ETFs. Rocket Lab shares were trading around $70, representing a decline of approximately 53% from their peak of $151. The investment firm continued accumulating Scribe Therapeutics, purchasing 39,149 shares valued at more than $1 million on Thursday. ARK reduced holdings in Alphabet, AMD, and Palantir while reallocating capital to Rocket Lab and other positions. Rocket Lab maintains a $2.36 billion backlog and is pursuing an $8 billion acquisition of Iridium. ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, has substantially increased its stake in Rocket Lab and Scribe Therapeutics through recent trading activity. These investment decisions demonstrate a strategic approach of accumulating shares in underperforming stocks while scaling back exposure to major technology companies.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc., RKLB
During trading on September 22, ARK acquired 359,612 shares of Rocket Lab stock, representing a total investment of $25.13 million.
This significant purchase was distributed among three distinct ARK funds. The ARK Innovation fund acquired 277,573 shares, while ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics picked up 59,746 shares. Meanwhile, ARK Space Exploration purchased 22,293 shares.
Rocket Lab Stock Experiences Significant Decline Rocket Lab shares settled at $70.31 on September 23, marking a decline of approximately 53% from the stock’s 52-week peak of $151.
Multiple headwinds have weighed on the stock price. The aerospace company delayed the inaugural launch schedule for its Neutron rocket program. Additionally, management issued gross margin projections that fell short of market expectations.
The company is currently pursuing an ambitious $8 billion acquisition of Iridium, a satellite communications provider. This transaction introduces additional financing considerations and potential shareholder dilution concerns.
To finance the acquisition, Rocket Lab arranged a $3.6 billion bridge financing facility. The company also executed an equity offering that generated approximately $2 billion in proceeds.
ARK’s investment in Rocket Lab extends beyond this single transaction. Earlier in September, the fund accumulated 705,102 shares worth $44.4 million during two separate trading sessions.
In July, ARK added 62,497 Rocket Lab shares to its portfolio. Interestingly, during the same month, the fund divested 184,670 shares of Iridium, the very company Rocket Lab seeks to acquire.
Rocket Lab reported strong operational performance in the second quarter, with revenue climbing 62% to reach a record $234 million. The company’s order backlog expanded to $2.36 billion. Its Electron rocket system successfully completed its 96th mission this month.
ARK Reduces Major Technology Positions To finance these strategic purchases, ARK has been liquidating positions in several established technology companies. On September 22, the investment firm sold $5.83 million in Alphabet shares.
In recent weeks, ARK has also scaled back its AMD and Palantir holdings. The firm appears to be reallocating resources toward companies it considers more significantly undervalued.
Concurrently, ARK has maintained steady accumulation of Scribe Therapeutics, a gene-editing biotechnology company. On Thursday, September 24, the firm purchased 39,149 shares valued at $1,038,622 through its ARKG genomics fund.
This purchase followed even larger acquisitions earlier in the same week. On Wednesday, ARK bought 143,257 Scribe Therapeutics shares worth over $4 million. The previous Tuesday saw the fund add 88,323 shares valued at nearly $2.5 million.
ARK also increased its Beam Therapeutics position on Wednesday, acquiring 65,553 shares worth roughly $1.7 million.
Simultaneously, ARK liquidated approximately $7 million in Tempus AI shares on Wednesday. This sale represents a strategic retreat from the artificial intelligence healthcare company.
In her most recent communication to investors, Wood expressed conviction that the current technology era is “likely to dwarf the Industrial Revolution.” She outlined ARK’s bullish outlook on artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, and genomics sectors.
Wood’s latest portfolio adjustments underscore persistent conviction in gene-editing and aerospace technology companies, while simultaneously reducing concentration in certain large-cap technology holdings.
Quick Overview ARK Invest has brought its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) onchain via Securitize using Ethereum infrastructure. Portfolio companies include OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. Token holders receive fund-level exposure rather than direct equity in portfolio companies. SEC granted approval through an amended order dated September 21 for tokenized share classes. ARK maintains investment management duties while Securitize oversees blockchain issuance. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has introduced a blockchain-based version of its ARK Venture Fund utilizing Securitize’s technology platform on Ethereum.
Today, we’re bringing the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) onchain with @ARKInvest and making it available on @ethereum.
For the first time, eligible investors can access the tokenized version of ARK’s flagship disruptive innovation fund with a minimum investment of $500. pic.twitter.com/J9ME81et8D
— Securitize (@Securitize) September 24, 2026
Trading under the ARKVX ticker, the fund operates as an actively managed interval structure designed to capture long-term appreciation from innovative technology companies.
The portfolio currently features positions in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks. ARK has noted that these allocations may shift as portfolio managers rebalance positions over time.
Qualified investors may now obtain tokenized exposure to ARKVX via Securitize’s platform. This provides proportional interest in the fund’s aggregate holdings rather than fractional ownership of any individual portfolio company.
Understanding What’s Being Tokenized This initiative does not place the underlying portfolio companies themselves on blockchain rails. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic equity is being individually tokenized through this process.
Rather, the fund structure itself has been represented digitally on Ethereum. Securitize handles the technical blockchain implementation and investor onboarding for this digital representation.
Industry sources suggest additional blockchain platforms may be integrated following this initial Ethereum deployment. No specific schedule has been announced for such expansion.
Securitize has clarified that ARKVX tokens are not exchange-listed securities. The firm does not anticipate significant secondary market activity for these instruments in the near term.
Participation continues to be governed by investor qualification criteria and existing regulatory frameworks. These requirements mirror those applying to conventional, non-tokenized fund shares.
Regulatory Approval Process The Securities and Exchange Commission authorized an updated order for the fund on September 21, permitting ARK to issue tokenized share classes.
Such classes may be transacted through alternative trading systems or quoted via other sanctioned mechanisms. A distinct class under the same authorization could potentially list on a registered national exchange.
The SEC noted that no parties requested proceedings before the order became effective. Authorization does not indicate that shares have commenced trading on any alternative platform.
This regulatory action built upon ARK’s earlier petition to modify relief initially granted in November 2025. That original filing did not specify a particular blockchain network or service provider.
The current announcement provides those specifics, explicitly identifying Ethereum and Securitize as partners. Investors acquiring fund shares pay the net asset value along with any relevant sales charges.
The ARK-Securitize Relationship This collaboration extends ARK’s $10 million strategic stake in Securitize completed in October 2025. That investment aimed to jointly develop compliant tokenized financial products.
Securitize has subsequently pursued a public market debut via combination with a Cantor Fitzgerald-sponsored special purpose acquisition company. The transaction featured a $225 million private financing component.
Securitize currently lists on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker SECZ. ARK Invest appears among its strategic investors.
ARK has simultaneously broadened its cryptocurrency-related positions across other vehicles. Last August, the firm acquired approximately $37.4 million in Block equity and $3.36 million in Circle stock.
Those transactions represented standalone equity purchases through ARK’s exchange-traded fund suite. They operated independently from the ARKVX tokenization initiative.
The ARKVX introduction comes after the SEC’s broader September exemption permitting certain tokenized U.S. equities to trade under defined parameters for a five-year period. That separate regulatory relief addresses individual corporate shares on approved platforms, differing from the fund-specific authorization ARK received.
ARK Invest, the disruptive-innovation investment manager founded by Cathie Wood, announced on 24 September that it has tokenized the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) through Securitize Corp. (NYSE: SECZ), bringing the actively managed fund onchain for the first time.
Tokenized interests in the fund are available initially on Ethereum, with Securitize handling the onchain issuance and the investor experience. The move puts one of ARK’s flagship strategies onchain and reflects a shared conviction between the two firms that tokenization can modernize how investment products are accessed, owned, and managed.
What the fund holds ARKVX is an actively managed, closed-end interval fund that invests across private and public companies aligned with disruptive innovation. Its portfolio includes stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks, among others, so eligible investors who access the fund through Securitize gain exposure to leading private technology companies through blockchain-based infrastructure. Fund holdings are subject to change.
ARK, which Wood founded in 2014 and is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, focuses solely on disruptive innovation, targeting large-scale opportunities across artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, and blockchain technology. As an interval fund, ARKVX offers limited liquidity through periodic repurchase offers, and its shares are not listed on an exchange; the tokenized interests represent a stake in the fund itself rather than direct ownership of the underlying companies.
Why ARK is going onchain “Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice,” said Cathie Wood, ARK’s founder, CEO and chief investment officer. “Making the ARK Venture Fund available onchain is a natural extension of our mission to democratize access to technologically enabled disruptive innovation.”
Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo framed the launch as proof that established managers can move existing products onto modern rails. “Bringing ARKVX onchain demonstrates how leading asset managers can use tokenization to move established investment products onto modern capital markets infrastructure,” he said.
A widening institutional push The tokenization follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s innovation exemption for tokenized stock trading and extends Securitize’s regulatory footprint, including a memorandum of understanding with Dubai’s VARA signed in September. Securitize, which reports roughly $5 billion in assets under management as of August, says it is the only company operating regulated digital-securities infrastructure in both the U.S. and the EU, and counts Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck among its partners.
AUTHOR
Jide Idowu is a skilled freelance writer with expertise in blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and digital finance. Known for his ability to break down complex topics into clear, engaging content, Jide crafts articles, blog posts, and analyses that resonate with both beginners and seasoned professionals. His work spans a wide range of subjects, from emerging crypto trends to in-depth explorations of blockchain innovations. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for educating readers, Jide is a reliable voice in the rapidly evolving world of digital assets.
ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, is taking its venture strategy on chain, tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) through Securitize Corp. (NYSE:SECZ) amidst asset managers increasingly embracing blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
ARK Venture Fund Goes On-ChainARK Invest and Securitize on Thursday announced the tokenization of ARKVX, an actively managed closed-end interval fund investing across private and public companies tied to disruptive innovation.
The fund’s portfolio includes exposure to some of the biggest names in private technology, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe and Databricks, though its holdings are subject to change.
Eligible investors accessing ARKVX through Securitize will be able to gain exposure to the portfolio using blockchain-based infrastructure.
The tokenized fund will initially launch on Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), with Securitize providing infrastructure for on-chain issuance and the investor experience.
“Tokenizing the ARK Venture Fund puts our conviction in the evolution, if not revolution, of capital markets into practice,” Wood said.
She added that ARK’s research suggests tokenization could fundamentally reshape how investors access and participate in private and public financial markets.
ARK, Securitize Deepen Tokenization PushThe launch expands a partnership between ARK and Securitize that gained momentum after ARK made a strategic investment in the tokenization company in October 2025.
The companies said the investment was aimed at accelerating institutional adoption of tokenized securities, expanding access to regulated investment products and strengthening capital-markets infrastructure.
Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, said bringing ARKVX on chain demonstrates how established asset managers can move traditional investment products onto blockchain-based infrastructure.
The Ethereum launch adds another institutional investment product to the growing real-world asset and tokenized-securities ecosystem as traditional asset managers explore blockchain rails for issuance, ownership and distribution.
Photo: ChrisStock82 / Shutterstock
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