Investment objective & strategy
As of Jan. 28, 2025 · prospectusObjective. The ARK 21Shares Blockchain and Digital Economy Innovation ETF (the Fund) seeks capital appreciation.
Strategy. The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund. Under normal conditions, the Fund seeks to invest 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in investments that provide exposure to the blockchain and in securities issued by companies principally engaged in the blockchain industry and/or digital economy (the 80% Policy). The Funds Bitcoin Futures exposure and Ether Futures exposure (each defined below) are included for purposes of the Funds 80% Policy, as well as the Funds investment in U.S.- and foreign-listed equity securities of issuers in the blockchain industry and/or involved in the digital economy. The digital economy generally refers to economic activity conducted via the internet and through the use of digital intermediaries. Companies in the … The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund. Under normal conditions, the Fund seeks to invest 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in investments that provide exposure to the blockchain and in securities issued by companies principally engaged in the blockchain industry and/or digital economy (the 80% Policy). The Funds Bitcoin Futures exposure and Ether Futures exposure (each defined below) are included for purposes of the Funds 80% Policy, as well as the Funds investment in U.S.- and foreign-listed equity securities of issuers in the blockchain industry and/or involved in the digital economy. The digital economy generally refers to economic activity conducted via the internet and through the use of digital intermediaries. Companies in the blockchain industry and/or involved in the digital economy include, but are not limited to, companies involved in the facilitation, trading, exchange, infrastructure, or custody of digital assets, digital asset transactions, and related services incidental or necessary for the functioning of a digital asset protocol or network. The Fund may invest in the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF and/or the ARK 21Shares Active Ethereum Futures Strategy ETF, both of which are affiliated underlying funds and are managed by the same investment team as the Fund (Active Bitcoin Futures ETF and Active Ethereum Futures ETF, together the Underlying ETFs). Each Underlying ETF invests in Bitcoin Futures and Ether Futures (as defined below) through a subsidiary. Through such subsidiary, the Active Bitcoin Futures ETF may invest in standardized, exchange-traded bitcoin futures contracts and the Active Ethereum Futures ETF may invest in standardized, exchange-traded ether futures contracts that are cash settled in U.S. dollars and are traded on, or subject to the rules of, commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the CME) (Bitcoin Futures and Ether Futures respectively). Neither the Fund nor any Underlying ETF invest directly in bitcoin, ether or other digital assets, or maintain direct exposure to spot bitcoin or spot ether. The Fund may, however, have indirect exposure to bitcoin or ether by virtue of its investments in investment companies that hold Bitcoin Futures or Ether Futures. The Fund generally targets 50% exposure to Bitcoin Futures and/or Ether Futures (i.e., through investment in the Underlying ETFs) (Bitcoin Futures exposure and Ether Futures exposure are collectively referred to as Crypto Asset Futures Exposure), but Crypto Asset Futures Exposure could be significantly higher or lower as described below. The Funds sub-adviser, 21Shares US LLC (the Sub-Adviser), is responsible for the final selection of individual securities and their weights for the Fund and relies on information regarding the spot bitcoin and spot ether markets and a proprietary equity scoring system (the Scoring System) developed by ARK Investment Management LLC (ARK), the Funds sub-subadviser. The Scoring System uses both top down (i.e., thematic research to identify the prime beneficiaries of current trends) and bottom up (i.e., valuation, fundamental, and quantitative measures) approaches. The Scoring System generally consists of several categories of information, including, company, people and culture, execution, barriers to entry, product leadership, valuation and thesis risk. Fund investments are continuously monitored, and scores are generally updated on a weekly basis. If a securitys score reduces below certain thresholds that are established as part of the Scoring System, then a full security review is triggered. The Sub-Adviser has the discretion to determine whether and when to make changes to the individual securities held by the Fund. For purposes of the Funds 80% Policy, companies that derive at least 50% of their revenues, operating income, assets or profits from one or more of the following activities are considered to be principally engaged in the blockchain industry and/or the digital economy: development of blockchain or digital economy-related businesses, products, or platforms; development of technologies expected to enable digital economy innovation; operation of digital payment gateways or facilitation of peer-to-peer payments, digital banking and lending, and E-commerce; operation of online brokerage or trading platforms; digital market making; or manufacturing semi-conductors. The Fund may also invest in investment-grade fixed-income securities of any duration issued by U.S. and foreign issuers in the blockchain industry and involved in the digital economy for purposes of the Funds 80% Policy. The Fund may invest in equity securities of companies of any capitalization. The Fund may invest in fixed income and equity securities of emerging market issuers. The Fund may also invest its assets in cash or cash equivalents, such as U.S. Treasuries, although such allocation is generally expected to be not more than 20% of the Funds net assets. The Funds Crypto Asset Futures Exposure and allocation to other assets is driven by the investment teams views on the relative attractiveness of each asset type in which the Fund may invest. For example, 50% of the Funds assets allocated to Crypto Asset Futures Exposure and 50% allocated to other assets in which the Fund may invest would be a neutral allocation. The Fund may have up to an 80% allocation to Crypto Asset Futures Exposure or up to an 80% allocation to other assets. The Fund is classified as a non-diversified fund, which means that the Fund may invest a greater percentage of its assets in investments backed by a particular issuer, or in the case of Bitcoin Futures or Ether Futures, in contracts with a single counterparty or a few counterparties. What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital asset also referred to as a crypto asset. Bitcoin, as a digital asset, is a unit of account on the bitcoin network, an open source, decentralized peer-to-peer computer network, which is also known as the Bitcoin Blockchain. Bitcoin may be held as an investment, may be used to purchase goods and services, or may be exchanged for fiat currency (like U.S. dollars). No single entity owns or operates the bitcoin network and the value of bitcoin is not backed by any government, corporation or other central body. Instead, the value of bitcoin is determined by supply and demand in markets created to facilitate trading and transactions in bitcoin. Because the source code for the bitcoin network is open-source, anyone can contribute to its development. Ownership and transaction records for bitcoin are protected by information technology known as cryptography, which is designed to protect the digital assets and only permits transactions to take place if certain conditions are satisfied. Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is an encryption scheme that uses two mathematically related, but not identical, keys - a public key and a private key. Unlike symmetric key algorithms that rely on one key to both encrypt and decrypt, each key performs a unique function. The public key is used to encrypt, and the private key is used to decrypt. Transactions in bitcoin that occur on the network are also encrypted, which is designed to prevent anyone from creating counterfeit assets or from spending more money than is in their account. The ultimate supply of bitcoin is finite and limited to 21 million coins. The amount of bitcoin currently available continues to increase as new bitcoin supplies will be mined until the 21 million protocol cap is reached. The bitcoin network is operated by a decentralized group of participants who run computer software that validates and records transactions in bitcoin (miners), developers who propose changes and improvements to this software, and users who use the software. Periodically, the software used by the bitcoin network is modified, which can result in different versions of bitcoin (forks). Although the Fund and Underlying ETFs do not invest directly in bitcoin, the value of Bitcoin Futures can be affected by forks. What is Ether? Ether is a digital asset also referred to as a crypto asset. Ether, as a digital asset, is a unit of account on the Ethereum network, an open source, decentralized peer-to-peer computer network, which is also known as the Ethereum Blockchain. The Ethereum network is governed by a set of rules that are commonly referred to as the Ethereum protocol. Ether may be held as an investment, may be used to purchase goods and services, stored for future use, or may be exchanged for fiat currency (like U.S. dollars). No single entity owns or operates the Ethereum network and the value of ether is not backed by any government, corporation or other central body. Instead, the value of ether is determined, in part, by supply and demand in markets created to facilitate trading and transactions in ether. Ether is the second largest digital asset by market capitalization behind bitcoin. Because the source code for the Ethereum network is open-source, anyone can contribute to its development. Ownership and transaction records for ether are protected by information technology known as cryptography, which is designed to protect the digital asset and only permits transactions to take place if certain conditions are satisfied. Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is an encryption scheme that uses two mathematically related, but not identical, keys - a public key and a private key. Unlike symmetric key algorithms that rely on one key to both encrypt and decrypt, each key performs a unique function. The public key is used to encrypt, and the private key is used to decrypt. The Ethereum network is operated by a decentralized group of participants who run computer software that validates and records transactions in ether (validators), developers who propose changes and improvements to the Ethereum protocol and the software that enforces the Ethereum protocol, and users who use the Ethereum software. Periodically, the software used by the Ethereum network is modified, which can result in different versions of ether (forks). Although the Fund and the Active Ethereum Futures ETF do not invest directly in ether, the value of Ether Futures can be affected by forks. For instance, in June 2016, the Ethereum community faced a divisive choice: whether to reverse a large hack (theft) of ether from a third-party project called The DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that was designed to act as a decentralized, investor-directed venture capital firm operating in the Ethereum ecosystem. While the hack didnt directly impact the Ethereum protocol itself, it harmed trust in the ecosystem. The majority of the ecosystem chose to reverse the hacked transactions and return the stolen ether to its original holders, while a minority believed that reversing the transactions was the incorrect course. This led to a hard fork in the Ethereum Blockchain, with the smaller of the two communities taking the name Ethereum Classic and running a separate blockchain with its own native crypto asset. Additional forks of the Ethereum Blockchains are possible. A large-scale fork could introduce risk, uncertainty, or confusion into the Ethereum Blockchains, or could fraction the value of the main blockchain and its native crypto asset, which could significantly impact the value of ether, and thereby of the Ether Futures held by the Fund. What are Bitcoin Futures and Ether Futures? Bitcoin Futures and Ether Futures are futures contracts traded on a commodity exchange registered with the CFTC. Currently, the only Bitcoin Futures and Ether Futures contracts in which the Fund (through its investments in the Underlying ETFs) will invest are traded on the CME. The Fund (through its investment in the Underlying ETFs) may invest in standard Bitcoin Futures and/or Ether Futures and in micro Bitcoin Futures and/or Ether Futures (collectively referred to herein as Bitcoin Futures or Ether Futures, as applicable). These futures contracts are agreements between two parties that are executed on a commodity futures exchange, and that are cleared and margined through a clearing house. These futures contracts are cash-settled, which means that one party agrees to buy a fixed quantity of the underlying asset from another party at a future point in time at a price agreed at the initiation of the contract, but instead of taking physical delivery of the underlying asset at the later date, settlement occurs using cash. The contractual obligations of a buyer or seller of these futures contracts are generally satisfied by cash settlement at the end of the contract period or by making an offsetting sale or purchase of an identical futures contract before the designated date of delivery. The Fund expects to gain Crypto Asset Futures Exposure by investing in the Underlying ETFs. Each Underlying ETF has a wholly-owned subsidiary, respectively, organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands and for which Empowered Funds, LLC dba EA Advisers (the Adviser) serves as investment adviser, the Sub-Adviser serves as sub-adviser and ARK serves as sub-subadviser. Investing more than 25% of each Underlying ETFs assets in a subsidiary could have adverse tax consequences for the Fund and the Underlying ETFs. See the section entitled Taxation in the SAI for more information. There can be no assurance that each Underlying ETF will be able to achieve or maintain its target bitcoin and/or ether exposure. References to investments by the Underlying ETFs should be read to mean investments by either the Underlying ETFs or their respective subsidiaries. Under normal conditions, the Fund invests more than 25% of its total assets in investments that provide exposure to bitcoin and/or Bitcoin Futures and/or the blockchain industry and/or the digital economy. Neither the Fund nor any Underlying ETF invest directly in bitcoin , ether or other digital assets, or maintain direct exposure to spot bitcoin or spot ether. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of bitcoin or ether should consider an investment other than the Fund. The Fund will, however, have indirect exposure to bitcoin and/or ether by virtue of its investments in the Underlying ETFs. For More Information Regarding the Underlying ETFs, please see the section entitled Additional Information About the Funds Investment Objectives and Principal Risks in the Prospectus.
Top holdings
As of June 30, 2025 · N-PORT| Security | Ticker | Value | % of fund |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF | ARKA | $1.41M | 26.96% |
| COINBASE GLOBAL INC | — | $1.01M | 19.24% |
| ARK 21Shares Active Ethereum Futures Strategy ETF | ARKZ | $713.78K | 13.62% |
| SHOPIFY INC CL A | — | $452.29K | 8.63% |
| BLOCK INC CL A | — | $399.02K | 7.61% |
| ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC | — | $310.57K | 5.93% |
| GALAXY DIGITAL INC A | — | $261.22K | 4.99% |
| MERCADOLIBRE INC | — | $209.09K | 3.99% |
| PAYPAL HOLDINGS | — | $165.58K | 3.16% |
| NU Holdings Ltd/Cayman Islands | NU | $139.16K | 2.66% |
Portfolio moves
Mar 31, 2025 → Jun 30, 2025How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.
Similar funds
Funds whose portfolios most overlap this one, by weight| Fund | Overlap | Net exp. |
|---|---|---|
| ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF | 41% | 1.00% |
| ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF | 27% | 0.87% |
| Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF | 16% | 0.85% |
Footnotes
- Net assets and holdings count as of June 30, 2025, from the fund's N-PORT filing.
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