Digital Asset, the company behind the Canton Network, a pioneering blockchain platform, has announced a successful $135 million strategic funding round. The investment, led by Tradeweb and DRW Venture Capital, signifies a major vote of confidence from both traditional finance and crypto-native investors, aiming to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology within the financial industry.
The funding round saw participation from a diverse group of major institutions, highlighting the broad appeal and potential of the Canton Network. Key participants included BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Citadel Securities, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Goldman Sachs, IMC, Liberty City Ventures, Optiver, Paxos, Polychain Capital, QCP, Republic Digital, 7RIDGE, and Virtu Financial. This influx of capital will be used to rapidly expand the integration of real-world assets (RWAs) onto the Canton Network, building upon its existing foundation of diverse asset classes. These assets include bonds, money market funds, alternative funds, commodities, repurchase agreements (repos), mortgages, life insurance, and annuities.
The Canton Network is a public, permissionless Layer-1 blockchain specifically designed to meet the stringent requirements of institutional finance. It offers configurable privacy and institutional-grade compliance at scale, addressing a critical need in the industry. By enabling institutions to tailor privacy settings to their specific needs, Canton overcomes a significant barrier to blockchain adoption, namely the conflict between transparency and financial confidentiality. The network has experienced rapid growth, with nearly 400 ecosystem participants, including global leaders in both traditional and decentralized finance.
Yuval Rooz, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset, emphasized the significance of this funding milestone, stating that it "validates the inevitability of what we envisioned years ago: a privacy-enabled public blockchain designed specifically for institutional adoption." He added that Canton is already actively supporting numerous asset classes and that the new capital will accelerate the onboarding of even more real-world assets, "finally making blockchain's transformative promise an institutional-scale reality."
Billy Hult, CEO of Tradeweb, echoed this sentiment, noting that major players from both the crypto and traditional finance worlds have joined Digital Asset in its mission to catalyze the next evolution in markets. He stated that with trillions of dollars’ worth of real-world assets already leveraging the Canton Blockchain, this funding round creates significant momentum for the company and cements Canton as the de facto protocol for global collateral mobility.
The Canton Network launched two years ago with support from major players like BNP Paribas, Cboe, Deutsche Börse Group, and Goldman Sachs. The platform has attracted institutions such as Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon to test real-world assets (RWA) on its network. This new funding round will also deepen relationships with several firms already part of the Canton Network and its Global Synchronizer Foundation, including BNP Paribas, DRW, Goldman Sachs, Liberty City Ventures, QCP, and Tradeweb, all of whom have played various roles in testing, governance, infrastructure, or app development since the network's inception.
The successful funding round highlights the growing recognition of Digital Asset's vision and the innovative design of the Canton Network. As the financial industry increasingly explores the potential of blockchain technology, platforms like Canton that can bridge the gap between innovation and real-world compliance are poised for significant growth.
