Cathie Wood’s ARK Bets on Tokenization With $10M Stake in Securitize as AI Focus Narrows

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is doubling down on what it sees as the next evolution of digital finance—tokenization—by taking a significant position in Securitize, a BlackRock-backed firm pioneering real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

According to ARK’s latest disclosure, the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) now holds about 3.25% of its assets in Securitize, making the company the fund’s eighth-largest position after major AI players such as xAI and Anthropic. Based on ARK’s $325.3 million in net assets under management as of September 30, the stake is worth roughly $10 million.

The investment aligns with Wood’s long-stated thesis that blockchain, artificial intelligence, and traditional finance will eventually converge.

Just weeks earlier, she told Bloomberg that the AI race is consolidating rapidly, with only “the Big Four”—OpenAI, Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Google’s Gemini—remaining as serious competitors. She predicted the field could shrink even further to just two dominant firms, as smaller startups get absorbed through acquisitions or fail to scale.

“AI is in the consolidation phase, and tokenization is the next growth phase,” said a person familiar with ARK’s strategy. “Cathie sees tokenization as the bridge between the AI productivity boom and financial markets.”

Securitize and the Tokenization Boom

Founded in 2017 by Carlos Domingo, Securitize has emerged as one of the leading firms bringing traditional financial products onto blockchain rails. The company has already issued more than $4.6 billion in tokenized assets, working with global finance heavyweights like BlackRock, Apollo, and Hamilton Lane. It is best known as the issuer behind BlackRock’s tokenized money-market fund, the BUIDL Fund, which leads the tokenized U.S. Treasury market with $2.8 billion in assets.

The tokenized asset market itself is expanding rapidly. Data from RWA.xyz shows the sector has grown 112% year-to-date to $33 billion, with projections from Ripple and BCG suggesting it could reach $18.9 trillion by 2033. ARK’s investment signals confidence that tokenization, by transforming bonds, equities, and funds into on-chain instruments, will reshape how assets trade and settle globally.

A Broader Shift in ARK’s Strategy

ARK’s tokenization bet comes just one day after a flurry of portfolio adjustments across its ETFs. On October 6, ARK’s funds were actively trading positions in DoorDash, Deere & Co., and Alibaba, while trimming holdings in Adaptive Biotechnologies and AeroVironment.

The moves highlight Wood’s continued balancing act between high-growth technology bets and long-term innovation themes such as genomics, robotics, and now tokenized finance.

This repositioning follows a strong year for the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which is up 47% year-to-date on the strength of holdings such as Roku, Coinbase, and Roblox. Wood attributes part of this performance to rising AI-driven productivity and believes deflationary trends could accelerate as automation reshapes the economy.

The Next Systemic Shift

For ARK, tokenization isn’t just a niche blockchain play, it’s a structural transformation comparable to the arrival of exchange-traded funds in the 1990s.

“Tokenization could eat the back office of Wall Street,” one ARK analyst said. “It’s the infrastructure shift that will make global assets programmable, tradable 24/7, and eventually governed by smart contracts.”

Wood’s focus appears to be on marrying AI’s intelligence layer with blockchain’s settlement layer. As she put it in earlier interviews, productivity gains from AI and efficiency from decentralized systems could push inflation toward zero while unlocking new asset classes for global investors.

From AI consolidation to on-chain finance, ARK’s strategy now reflects a consistent theme: concentration and convergence. With fewer AI leaders and a new generation of tokenized financial instruments emerging, Wood is positioning ARK to capture both waves of transformation, where intelligence meets infrastructure.

---

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by the Editorial Team.

Interested in advertising with CIM? Talk to us!