Masterworks Vaults 1-5 Report PPEX Trading Ended Early, Replaced by Bulletin Board

The five Masterworks Vault LLCs, the entities whose series hold the artworks Masterworks has offered since 2023, reported a change in their secondary market on October 20, 2026. Each filed a Form 1-U stating that trading of its Class A shares on the PPEX ATS, the alternative trading system operated by North Capital Private Securities Corporation, ceased on October 19, and that shares previously eligible on PPEX became eligible to transact on the Masterworks bulletin board, according to the filings. The July notices had put the end of PPEX trading 'on or about December 14, 2026'; it came about eight weeks earlier, at the end of what the new filings call a transition period.

What is new is the date and the implementation. The board itself had been described to investors already: the Vaults' August 2026 offering circular amendments said Masterworks intended to establish a bulletin board or other liquidity mechanism, that it would not match buy and sell orders, that volume was expected to be extremely low, and that it might be unavailable in some states and countries. The October filings report that it exists and that eligible shares moved to it. They report no transactions on it.

What the filings show

Each of the five filings carries the same Item 9 text under the heading 'Establishment of Bulletin Board.' It recalls the July 8 notice to North Capital terminating the agreements under which secondary trading was facilitated on the PPEX ATS, 'subject to a transition period,' reports that on October 19 trading on the PPEX ATS ceased, and states that shares which had been eligible there 'became eligible to transact on the Masterworks bulletin board,' which 'is intended to provide a limited means of offering secondary liquidity.'

The terms as filed: 'Unlike a stock exchange or the PPEX ATS, the Bulletin Board does not match buy and sell orders and, accordingly, transaction volume is expected to be extremely low.' Masterworks intends to facilitate secondary sales of each series on the board from the three-month anniversary of the date that series' offering is fully subscribed. To take part, a holder must open a cash custodial account with a bank or broker-dealer Masterworks designates; the filings do not name it. Masterworks 'currently expects to pay all costs and expenses' of the board and of executing transfers, says 'certain third party expenses may be passed on to investors in the future,' and says it 'may at some point in the future seek to register to become a broker-dealer and a member of FINRA to enable it to earn transactional fees for trading the Shares.' Secondary transactions are intended to comply with state securities laws through a manual exemption, a direct state filing, or as isolated non-issuer transactions; the board 'may not be available to certain categories of investors.' Neither the Company nor its affiliates may participate, and a holder of more than 10% of a series' Class A shares may be deemed an affiliate and be unable to.

Background

This is the third venue change in four years, and it returns to the venue type Masterworks left in 2022. A Form 1-U of November 4, 2022 reported that Masterworks had 'ceased operating its secondary market bulletin board platform' that day and that an alternative trading system operated by Templum Markets LLC would replace it, with trades executed and settled through a brokerage account at DriveWealth, LLC. PPEX, operated by North Capital, followed in January 2025. On July 8, 2026 the Vaults disclosed Masterworks' June 17 notice terminating the PPEX agreements effective on or about December 14, 2026, saying an alternative 'may take the form of a bulletin board, a matching service, or another trading or liquidity mechanism' with no assurance any would be implemented; AltStreet covered that notice on July 20.

The August 2026 post-qualification amendments to the Vaults' offering circulars went further than the July notice. Vault 5's, filed August 4, says Masterworks 'currently intends to establish a bulletin board or other alternative means of offering secondary liquidity,' that it 'may restrict or limit participation by investors residing in certain U.S. States or foreign jurisdictions,' and that 'unlike a stock exchange, a bulletin board will not enable matching of buy and sell orders and, accordingly, transaction volume is expected to be extremely low.' Investors who read the amended circulars were told what the board would be; the October filings tell them it is in place, and when PPEX stopped.

The pattern in AltStreet's data

AltStreet's record holds every Masterworks entity's filings. The October 20 notice was filed by the five Vault LLCs only. The separately reporting single-artwork issuers, the Masterworks-numbered LLCs whose shares had also been eligible on PPEX, filed nothing on October 20 or 21. That absence does not establish whether their shares are eligible on the board; it establishes only that they have not said.

As separate recent context: five days earlier, four of these five Vaults reported selling $4.78 million of shares after their offering statements had expired, with a possible rescission liability the series say they cannot fund. The filings do not connect the two events, and this article does not.

Why it matters

Eligibility is not operation. The filings establish that shares became eligible to transact on the board; they do not report a completed trade, an execution procedure beyond the custodial account requirement, or any volume. A holder who wants to sell is in the position the filings describe: there is 'no established public trading market for the Shares,' the shares are 'highly illiquid,' and holders 'should be prepared to hold their Shares for an extended and indefinite period of time, as there can be no assurance that the Shares of any series can ever be sold.'

Three things did change. The venue is the sponsor's own board rather than a registered ATS. The cost of the venue is Masterworks' for now, with the filings reserving the right to pass third-party expenses on and to seek broker-dealer registration so that Masterworks can charge transaction fees. And the issuers have tied a statement about reporting to the venue: they say they will continue to file under Rule 257 for as long as shares are available for posting or Masterworks facilitates another form of secondary liquidity. That is a commitment to keep reporting while the board exists; the filings say nothing about what would follow if it did not.

What the filings do not show

The filings do not say why PPEX trading ended on October 19 rather than December 14, or why the North Capital agreements were terminated. They do not name the bank or broker-dealer for the custodial accounts, say what the board displays, give a fee schedule beyond the statement that Masterworks currently pays the costs, or say which investor categories are excluded. They report no transactions, so nothing can be said about prices or volume on the board. Whether the single-artwork issuers' shares are eligible is not stated. PPEX's own account requirements and costs are not described in the filings read here and are marked as not stated above rather than assumed.