Fund Shares Go Directly On-Chain: ARK Leads the SEC Case-by-Case Exemption as Tokenized RWA Value Tops $39B
Total On-Chain RWA Value
$39.2B
Sep 8 · ex-stablecoins
RWA Holders
3.68M
+112.8% in 30 days
Tokenized Stock Value
$3.1B
From <$1B YTD to record
Tokenized Treasuries
$15.9B
BUIDL $2.8B retakes lead
ARK Files for SEC Case-by-Case Exemption to Put Its Fund Shares Directly On-Chain
On September 8, The Rollup founder Andy revealed that a major fund has received the SEC’s “green light” to tokenize its fund shares on-chain; coincidentally, SEC filings show ARK Venture Fund is applying to amend its existing exemption order. If approved, ARK would become the first major U.S. asset manager to list tokenized securities via a case-by-case exemption — a signal that traditional asset management is moving from “issuing on-chain assets” to “turning its own fund shares into tokenized securities that can be registered and transferred on-chain,” the 2.0 phase.
- ARK’s application adds two new share classes: an “Exchange Class” (listable on a national securities exchange) and a “Tokenized Class” (DLT-based ownership records), with the latter as the core focus
- Tokenized shares could be traded via regulated ATS venues, other quotation mechanisms, and P2P transfers between eligible wallets — conditional on the transfer agent completing KYC/AML whitelist checks on holding wallets
- ARK Venture Fund is a closed-end interval fund investing in OpenAI, Anthropic, Figure AI, Tenstorrent, and pre-IPO SpaceX, with a $500 minimum subscription; tokenization aims to solve the liquidity pain of the interval fund’s quarterly 5% fixed repurchase
- Risk note: secondary trading prices of on-chain shares may deviate from the fund’s daily NAV; September 18 is the hearing request deadline, and results are expected shortly after if no hearing is held
Regulatory Path
With the universal “innovation exemption” still in flux, case-by-case exemptions open a pilot window for top institutions
Industry Significance
Approval would give the entire asset-management industry a standardized reference path for putting fund shares directly on-chain
Potential Impact
Could later combine with stablecoins and lending protocols to create financial composites hard to build in traditional markets
CZ Predicts IPOs Will Move On-Chain as France’s ST Group Completes the World’s First Fully Tokenized Offering
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) posted on X on September 8, “IPOs will move on chain,” predicting that traditional initial public offerings will migrate entirely to the blockchain. This goes further than his earlier “tokenize everything” stance — advancing from secondary tokenization of stocks to primary issuance and listing infrastructure. French aerospace and defense supplier ST Group completed the world’s first fully tokenized IPO this April on Paris-based Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise), issuing 113,525 shares at €18.25 each under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, raising €2.07 million.
- Unlike products offering only synthetic exposure, ST Group issued regulated shares through a blockchain-based market from the initial offering stage, giving investors legal equity rather than mere price-tracking tokens
- On-chain IPOs can automate the issuance process via smart contracts, cutting underwriting costs by more than 70% from the traditional 5%-7%; 24/7 global trading removes geographic and liquidity constraints
- Nasdaq received SEC approval for a tokenized-securities pilot in March, and the NYSE filed a similar rule change in April; DTCC completed production-grade testing with about 40 firms in July, with a broader launch expected in October
- Binance’s bStocks holds roughly 21% of on-chain RWA infrastructure ($627.5M), with Circle Internet Group ($103.6M) and SpaceX ($63.4M) leading trading turnover; Anthropic’s pre-IPO perpetuals surged on both Binance and Hyperliquid, implying a valuation near $2 trillion
Primary Market
CZ’s direction is right but premature: on-chain issuance for private markets is live, while mainstream IPOs still need register, settlement, and secondary layers to knit together
Emerging Markets
88% of perpetual users come from emerging markets; on-chain IPOs could reshape cross-border investment barriers by enabling “anyone with a wallet to participate”
Compliance Boundary
The SEC is clear that tokenization does not alter registration, disclosure, or investor-protection obligations; rights structure differences remain the key issue
Source: Crypto News · Coinlive · September 8, 2026
On-Chain RWA Value Tops $39.2B, Holders Double to 3.68M in a Month as Tokenized Stocks Hit New Highs
RWA.xyz data shows that distributed on-chain tokenized RWA value reached about $39.2 billion (excluding stablecoins) as of September 8, up sharply from roughly $12 billion in mid-2025; total holders reached 3,681,140, up 112.81% in 30 days. Tokenized Treasury funds account for about $15.9 billion and tokenized credit about $8 billion; tokenized stock value crossed $3.1 billion in early September, climbing steadily from under $1 billion at the start of the year.
- Holders doubling in 30 days against relatively flat distributed value signals broadening participation rather than a few large mints — the most telling adoption metric
- Tokenized ETFs are roughly 21% of total market value ($644M), led by SPY, QQQ, and IVV wrappers; Ondo leads assets at $857M while Robinhood (862K) and Binance bStocks (827K) lead holders
- Another $386.9 billion of “represented value” uses blockchain mainly as a recordkeeping layer, so investors cannot freely hold and transfer those assets in their own wallets; the distributed/represented gap is the honest caveat when evaluating AUM
- BlackRock’s BUIDL retook the tokenized-Treasury crown at about $2.8 billion (18.5% share), ahead of Circle’s USYC, showing the category maturing into genuine competition rather than a one-issuer franchise
- The defining open challenge is liquidity: most tokenized Treasuries and credit still mint and redeem rather than trade actively in secondary markets
Adoption Inflection
Monthly holder doubling signals both retail and institutional entry, moving the category from demo to real
Diverging Landscape
Ondo leads assets while Robinhood/Binance lead wallets: distribution reach and institutional depth are two different contests
Liquidity Challenge
Most assets still mint and redeem; active secondary trading becomes the sector’s defining bottleneck for the next phase
Source: Stobox · RWA.xyz · Token Terminal · September 8, 2026
Datavault AI to Launch IDE Asset-Tokenization Trading Platform on September 15
Nasdaq-listed Datavault AI announced it will launch the Information Data Exchange (IDE), an asset-tokenization trading platform, on September 15, 2026. The platform supports the identification, authentication, scoring, valuation, tokenization, and monetization of data and other real-world assets (RWA), while letting data owners retain ownership and control of the underlying data. CEO Nathaniel Bradley stressed that “tokenization itself does not create a market,” and the goal is to build complete infrastructure spanning asset identification, authentication, valuation, tokenization, trading, and settlement.
- Datavault AI will also launch NILv, a trading platform for athletes’ commercial rights, and APEX, a blockchain-based data and advertising trading platform
- Positioned as a data+RWA dual entry point, shifting from “issuing tokens” to “building full market infrastructure,” echoing the industry’s deeper push toward compliance and liquidity
- Datavault previously flagged an $800M RWA tokenization pipeline; the IDE launch may mark its first public delivery milestone
New Asset Class
Data as identifiable, valuable, and tradable RWA adds a new supply source to the market
Infrastructure
Emphasis on end-to-end infrastructure over single issuance points to secondary liquidity and settlement buildout
Listed Backing
A Nasdaq-listed company entering the space strengthens traditional capital-market confidence in tokenization platforms
Source: PANews · Businesswire · September 9, 2026
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