Digital Asset has raised $355 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto to scale Canton Network as onchain infrastructure for institutional capital markets — the largest single funding round for institutional blockchain infrastructure to date, backed by 23 named institutions spanning traditional finance, digital asset markets, and sovereign investment.
The investor list reads as a cross-section of global institutional finance. Alongside lead investor a16z crypto, the round includes ABN Amro, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority through a wholly owned subsidiary, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, iCapital, Optiver, Polychain, S&P Global, SBI Group, SoFi, and Tradeweb. The combination of a major sovereign wealth fund, leading derivatives market makers, global custodians, and data companies alongside crypto-native investors signals that Canton is being evaluated as core market infrastructure rather than an experimental blockchain project.
Canton Network — the only public layer-one blockchain with institutional-grade privacy, according to Digital Asset — connects more than 700 ecosystem participants through a permissioned interoperability layer that preserves privacy, compliance, and control for regulated financial institutions. Live use cases include tokenisation, collateral mobility, settlement, and payments workflows across major financial institutions.
Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, said the company is working with more than 700 ecosystem participants to make Canton the core infrastructure for global finance, and described the investment as arriving at an important moment for both Digital Asset and Canton's growth. Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto, said Digital Asset has built one of the clearest examples of blockchain product-market fit in regulated finance and is building foundational infrastructure for the next generation of financial markets.
Financial Technology Partners served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Digital Asset on the transaction.