Cathie Wood’s Vision for On-Chain Tokenization
Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest and a pioneer among traditional financial investors in the cryptocurrency space, is optimistic about the future of tokenization. Speaking at the recent Digital Asset Summit in New York, Wood expressed her desire to bring some of Ark’s funds onto blockchain platforms as soon as the regulatory environment becomes more accommodating for U.S. companies.
“We believe that tokenization is going to be a transformative force in finance,” Wood stated during her presentation. “We would love the opportunity to tokenize our Venture Fund (ARKVX) or our Digital Asset Revolution Fund.”
She emphasized the importance of seizing the moment, noting, “I think the regulatory landscape is beginning to shift in a way that could enable us to pursue this.” However, the absence of a clear framework from U.S. regulators regarding the registration of security tokens remains a significant obstacle for firms like Ark, which are eager to enter a burgeoning market that many experts predict could escalate into a multi-trillion-dollar industry by the close of 2030.
Coinbase, a major investment for Ark, has also hinted at a similar vision for the future of tokenization. At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference earlier this month, Coinbase’s Chief Financial Officer, Alesia Haas, indicated that the crypto exchange is currently in discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the issuance of a security token. This initiative follows a previous setback when Coinbase attempted to go public with such a product in 2020.
Furthermore, Jesse Pollack, the founder of Base—the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by Coinbase—commented on social media platform X that there are currently no “concrete plans” to tokenize Coinbase’s stock. He clarified, “We are in an exploratory phase and are working diligently to understand what regulatory hurdles must be addressed to safely and compliantly bring assets like $COIN to @base in a forward-looking manner.”
