Digital Asset, the primary developer behind the institutional Canton Network, secured 355 million USD in a new equity funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto. The capital injection officially values the blockchain infrastructure firm at over 2 billion USD. The raise occurs as traditional financial institutions aggressively seek out public, permissionless Layer 1 architectures that do not violate strict regulatory barriers regarding proprietary order flow.
More than 20 traditional finance and decentralized finance entities participated in the round. The consortium includes the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, and S&P Global.
The final close exceeded the initial 300 million USD target that Bloomberg previously reported was under negotiation in May.
Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz confirmed the company has reached profitability. The firm plans to use the new capital to expand its balance sheet, pursue strategic mergers and acquisitions, and accelerate the transition of its institutional partners’ infrastructure onchain, according to The Block.
Major global financial entities are already deploying on Canton’s architecture. Visa officially became a Canton Super Validator in March and integrated the network into its stablecoin settlement pilot. Simultaneously, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is actively testing tokenized U.S. Treasury securities on the network, while HSBC recently completed a tokenized deposit pilot.
How Sub-Transaction Privacy Enables Institutional Asset Tokenization
The core technical catalyst driving this institutional adoption is the Canton Network’s specific use of the Daml smart contract language. Canton allows for “sub-transaction privacy,” enabling Wall Street firms to utilize shared public infrastructure for asset tokenization without legally compromising counterparty positions.
This architectural design solves a central regulatory hurdle that previously kept major banks isolated on private, permissioned ledgers. Following 185 million USD raised by Digital Asset over the preceding 12 months, the new funding accelerates the trend of legacy financial institutions seeking compliant onchain settlement rails.