Digital Asset Secures $355 Million in Funding for Canton Network
Quick Look
- Digital Asset, the firm behind the Canton Network, has raised $355 million from investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Andreessen Horowitz, Citadel Securities, and CME Ventures.
- The funding will support the network's growth in facilitating real-world asset transactions.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Digital Asset has secured $355 million in new funding for its Canton Network, a public, permissioned blockchain designed for financial institutions. The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm and included participation from major Wall Street firms and global investment banks.
Digital Asset secured $355 million in new funding from investors including an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, according to a Thursday announcement from the firm behind the Canton Network.
The firm said that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, through a wholly owned subsidiary, was among participants in the company’s latest funding round. The development follows the public, permissioned blockchain’s debut nearly two years ago.
The firm behind Canton, a network designed for financial institutions, said the round was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, a16z crypto. Other participants included some of Wall Street’s most prominent firms, such as Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, and S&P Global.
The funding round also drew participation from a number of investment banks and financial services firms from around the globe, ranging from South Korea to the Netherlands: William Blair, Hanwha Investment & Securities, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and ABN Amro.
The diverse group of backers underscores Canton’s global approach to bringing financial institutions on-chain through its “network of networks” architecture, which allows participants to retain complete control over systems that are connected to a broader ecosystem.
The new funding also highlights Canton’s growing adoption as a network for facilitating transactions involving real-world assets, or RWAs, such as bonds, equities, and commodities. The funding round featured crypto-native participants such as Coinbase Ventures.
Canton’s native token changed hands around 16 cents, a 12.3% increase over the past week, according to CoinGecko. The digital asset hit an all-time high of 19 cents in February.
“Blockchain adoption will be defined by practical, production-grade applications in the world’s largest markets,” Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz said in a statement. “For capital markets to move on-chain, institutions need infrastructure that reflects how they actually operate.”
Rooz highlighted Canton’s ability to support institutions’ privacy and compliance needs. Since the network debuted, Canton has gained more than 700 ecosystem participants, he added.
Because institutions have complete control over the assets they issue on the network, some blockchain purists have argued that Canton isn’t a true blockchain.
“Many experts (ourselves included) consider it a glorified database in the cloud and not at all consistent with Bitcoin's open architecture that is both trustless and permissionless,” TD analyst Lance Vitanza, for example, wrote in a February note.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Canton Network will see increased adoption for real-world asset transactions.
Likely · Medium term
Further development of Canton Network's infrastructure to meet institutional needs.
Very likely · Medium term
Open Questions
- What specific infrastructure developments will the new funding enable?
- How will Canton Network address the criticism of not being a 'true' blockchain?
- What are the specific plans for expanding the network's reach to more financial institutions?
- What is the breakdown of the $355 million funding allocation across different areas of the business?
