Share this article

Arca Labs Launches Ethereum-Based SEC-Registered Fund

After nearly 20 months of discussions, the Los Angeles money manager finally cleared a hurdle involving what appears to be the first regulated fund represented by digital shares.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:59 a.m. Published Jul 6, 2020, 1:32 p.m.
Arca CEO Rayne Steinberg (CoinDesk archives)
Arca CEO Rayne Steinberg (CoinDesk archives)

A bitcoin exchange-traded fund may never receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but an even stranger crypto investment vehicle finally has: a blockchain transferred fund.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

On Monday, Los Angeles-based money manager Arca began selling shares in the “Arca U.S. Treasury Fund,” an SEC-registered closed-end fund whose digital shares – ArCoins – trade atop the Ethereum blockchain. The fund invests a majority of its assets in short-term U.S Treasury bills and notes. The company told CoinDesk it received a "Notice of Effectiveness" on July 6.

The launch marks the first time the crypto-skeptical SEC has allowed a fund represented by cryptographics tokens to enter the investment markets under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Arca has been pushing for various forms of the ArCoin proposal for nearly 20 months, as shown in regulatory filings.

“Our announcement today is a ground-breaking and transformative step toward the unification of traditional finance with digital asset investing as this new category of regulated, digital investment products is made available to investors,” said Arca CEO Rayne Steinberg in a press statement.

Executives have previously heralded their proposed fund as a pace setter for a hybrid digital asset class. ArCoin marries perhaps the investment world’s least risky asset, Treasurys, with blockchain, the up-and-coming tech backbone they believe will lend efficiency and security to the trading and settlement process.

“The fund is significant because it is the first registered fund to issue digital securities through the use of blockchain technology, said Susan Gault-Brown, a partner at Morrison & Foerster, the law firm which advised Arca. "As a result, the fund and the digital securities it issues are subject to a comprehensive regulatory framework while introducing an innovative and versatile asset to the digital ecosystem.”

Specifically, Arca’s digital development wing, Arca Labs, chose the Ethereum blockchain, one of the largest public blockchains in the world and the landing site of many novel crypto assets, including so-called digital securities like ArCoin, which uses the ERC-1404 protocol, according to the June 24 prospectus.

ERC-1404 is a more restrictive derivative of the popular ERC-20 interoperability protocol. The main difference is that ERC-1404 restricts where holders can send a token to a collection of whitelisted addresses. That’s a crucial point for regulators wary of letting tokens outside their scope.

More For You

Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Title Image

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.

需要了解的:

Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.

The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.

More For You

XRP climbs to $1.90 but struggles to break out of tight range

(CoinDesk Data)

Traders are watching $1.88 as support and $1.94–$2.00 as the levels XRP needs to clear to break consolidation.

需要了解的:

  • XRP rose about 0.4 percent to trade near $1.90, but remained locked in a narrow consolidation range.
  • Support around $1.88 has repeatedly attracted buyers, while rallies continue to stall below the $1.92 to $1.94 resistance band.
  • Traders expect range-bound price action to persist unless XRP breaks above $1.94 toward $2.00 or falls below $1.88 toward the $1.80 area.