Digital Asset, the company behind the institutional blockchain network Canton Network, has just announced successfully raising $135 million in a strategic funding round. This round was co-led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from major names on Wall Street and the fintech industry such as Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Paxos, Polychain Capital, and QCP.
Goals and Potential of Canton Network
Digital Asset will use this capital to "accelerate the adoption of institutional finance and decentralized finance on the Canton Network." Co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, Yuval Rooz, emphasized: "Canton has actively supported various types of assets – from bonds to alternative funds – and this funding round will accelerate the onboarding of more real-world assets onto the blockchain, ultimately realizing the transformative promise of blockchain at an institutional scale."
According to Digital Asset, #CantonNetwork addresses the key barrier to blockchain adoption: the conflict between financial transparency and security, by allowing organizations to adjust privacy settings according to their specific needs. This is seen as "the first comprehensive solution of its kind, bridging the gap between blockchain innovation and financial compliance in the real world."
Support from major financial players and the trend of asset tokenization
Canton Network is a blockchain designed to streamline financial markets, enabling major financial institutions to accelerate transactions while minimizing risk. Top financial firms such as Deloitte, S&P Global, and Moody's have all supported the launch of this network in 2023.
The announcement on Tuesday also indicated that real-world assets such as bonds, money market funds, and commodities will be integrated into the Canton Network following this funding round. Major financial institutions, most notably BlackRock, are interested in asset tokenization. Investors have been calling for securities and commodities to be brought onto the blockchain for years so they can be traded 24/7 in tokenized form. BUIDL is BlackRock's first tokenized fund released on a public blockchain, launching on the Ethereum network in March 2024.