Institutional blockchain infrastructure provider Digital Asset, the creator of the Canton Network, has raised approximately $50 million in strategic investments from BNY, iCapital, Nasdaq, and S&P Global. This funding round builds upon Digital Asset’s significant momentum in scaling the Canton Network, following previous funding milestones that collectively raised $135 million.
The involvement of these four prominent institutions underscores the broad support for the Canton Network across the financial ecosystem. It signifies that major banks, exchanges, data providers, and wealth management infrastructure are converging on a unified blockchain solution.
"Institutions across the financial ecosystem recognize the necessity of blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for regulated markets," stated Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset. "The addition of BNY, iCapital, S&P Global, and Nasdaq marks another milestone in the evolution of both Digital Asset and Canton."
Canton Network’s Focus on Institutional Infrastructure
The Canton Network is a public, permissionless layer-1 blockchain designed with a strong emphasis on institutional-grade compliance and configurable privacy features. The company reports that Canton currently supports trillions of dollars in tokenized real-world assets, with over 600 institutions and validators actively participating on the network.
The diverse group of investors backing Canton indicates that the network's value proposition is resonating with established financial players seeking the benefits of public blockchains without compromising privacy or regulatory adherence. Canton positions itself as a "network of networks," offering customizable privacy and compliance controls specifically tailored for regulated markets, rather than for retail decentralized finance applications.
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton is actively developing on these rails. In October, the firm announced its intention to migrate its Benji Investments platform, which tokenizes shares of its primary US money market fund, to the Canton Network. This move extends an existing tokenized fund product, previously operating on public chains, into Canton's institutional framework.
In contrast to other networks, Canton has deliberately avoided the initial coin offering (ICO) route. Its tokenomics are structured to prioritize validators and applications that generate genuine transaction activity on the network, rather than encouraging speculative token trading. Rooz previously elaborated on this strategy:
“Our thesis was focused on serving large-scale institutions. We’ve been very patient. We refused to do an ICO. We refuse to do a token pre-mine. We’ve really thought about the tokenomics.”
Part of a Broader Institutional Shift
These recent investments directly build upon Digital Asset's earlier $135 million strategic round. That prior funding brought in participants such as DRW, Tradeweb, Goldman Sachs, DTCC, Citadel Securities, and Paxos, all contributing to the scaling of Canton and the onboarding of additional real-world assets.
The timing of this announcement coincides with significant developments in the institutional adoption of digital assets. This week, Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, announced that its clients will now be able to trade cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds on its platform, marking a reversal of its previous stance against Bitcoin.
Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank, has also updated its cryptocurrency policy. Reports indicate that the bank is now recommending a 1% to 4% allocation to digital assets for its wealth management clients.
Concurrently, Coinbase is intensifying its collaboration with major U.S. banks on pilot programs for stablecoins, custody services, and settlement solutions. This positions Coinbase as a key infrastructure provider for institutions that prefer not to develop these capabilities internally.
In this evolving landscape, a unified blockchain infrastructure that attracts investment from banks, exchange operators, data and index providers, and wealth-tech firms signals a strong consensus on the future location of long-term on-chain market infrastructure. Brian Ruane, head of Global Clearing, Credit Services, and Corporate Trust at BNY, commented on this trend:
“As capital markets move faster toward a real-time, always-on operating model, the development of financial infrastructure that seamlessly connects digital and traditional markets has never been more important. We’re excited to work with Digital Asset and Canton to continue advancing privacy-enabled and interoperable settlement solutions at institutional scale.”