**[ARK Applies to U.S. SEC for Tokenized Share Class of Venture Fund]** Golden Finance reported that on September 9, ARK Investment Management submitted an exemption application to the U.S. SEC, seeking to issue a tokenized share class for its venture fund, ARK Venture Fund. The SEC issued a related notice on August 24 and set September 18 as the deadline for hearing requests. The fund is a continuously offered closed-end interval fund, with total assets of $562 million as of January 31. The application proposes establishing two share classes: the exchange class, which will be listed on a national securities exchange, and the tokenized class, which will record ownership using distributed ledger technology and allow peer-to-peer transfers between registered alternative trading systems or whitelisted wallets. Tokenized shares will be issued at net asset value, exempt from sales charges, distributed by registered brokers or fund transfer agents, and will bear transaction costs independently. ARK seeks relief under Sections 6(c), 18, and 17(d) of the Investment Company Act and Rules 23c-3 and 17d-1, with Dechert serving as legal counsel. The application does not specify a tokenization service provider or blockchain, only listing fee categories for "tokenization agent" and "fund transfer agent." Currently, BNY Mellon serves as the fund's transfer agent, administrator, and custodian. ARK Venture Fund holds equity in Securitize and $10 million in convertible notes; Securitize is the transfer agent for BlackRock's BUIDL fund. The SEC has yet to formally approve the industry's anticipated tokenization "innovation exemption" framework, with related rules still under development.