Digital Asset Raises $355m to Put Capital Markets Onchain

The backers include HSBC, BNP Paribas and Citadel Securities, a sign that the institutions which run capital markets now want to own the rails underneath them.

A blockchain company has just raised 355 million dollars, and the names on the cap table say more than the number does. Digital Asset, the firm behind the Canton Network, closed the round on 11 June. It was led by a16z crypto, which put in 100 million dollars, and it valued the business at roughly 2 billion dollars. The target had been 300 million. It came in oversubscribed.

That part is familiar. Big tokenisation rounds are not rare any more. What makes this one worth a UK founder's attention is who else showed up. HSBC. BNP Paribas. ABN Amro. Citadel Securities. Broadridge. S&P Global. Apollo. CME Ventures. Tradeweb. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. SBI Group. SoFi. This is not the usual crowd of crypto funds taking a punt on a protocol. It is the people who already run the world's clearing, custody and market making, writing cheques to build the next version of the plumbing they depend on.

Canton is a public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain, but with a twist that matters for institutions: configurable privacy. A bank can settle a trade on a shared network without exposing its positions to every other participant. That single design choice is why firms that would never touch a fully transparent public chain are comfortable here. The pitch, in Digital Asset's own framing, is to make Canton the onchain infrastructure for capital markets. Less a trading venue, more the connective tissue underneath tokenised bonds, funds, repo and, in time, equities.

So why should a founder in Bristol or Leeds care about a Wall Street settlement layer?

Because the route many founders will eventually use to raise and manage capital depends on this layer being trusted, liquid and boring. Tokenised private company shares, automated cap tables, secondary windows that let an early backer realise some gains without forcing a full exit: none of that works on infrastructure the institutions refuse to touch. When HSBC and BNP Paribas fund the rails directly, they are signalling that tokenised securities are becoming part of the core system rather than an experiment running alongside it. The closer that infrastructure gets to the centre, the lower the risk for everyone who builds on top of it later.

There is a quieter point in the investor list too. Several of these names, Broadridge, S&P Global, Tradeweb, are not banks placing a bet. They are the firms whose own businesses get reshaped if capital markets move onchain. Their participation looks less like venture investing and more like buying a seat at the table while the table is still being built. That is usually a sign a shift has stopped being optional.

None of this means tokenised equity for startups arrives tomorrow. Canton's near term work is in wholesale markets, the deep and unglamorous end where Treasuries and money market funds already trade in tokenised form. The path from there to a founder issuing tokenised shares to qualifying investors is real but it is not short. What changed this week is the level of conviction behind the foundation. A 2 billion dollar valuation, set by the incumbents themselves, is a vote that the foundation is worth pouring concrete into.

For anyone tracking where tokenisation actually matters, the lesson is to watch the plumbing, not the price charts. The interesting money is no longer chasing tokenised assets. It is buying the pipes.

Key Takeaways

• Digital Asset, developer of the Canton Network, raised 355 million dollars led by a16z crypto at a valuation of around 2 billion dollars, oversubscribed against a 300 million dollar target.

• The investor list is dominated by incumbents, including HSBC, BNP Paribas, ABN Amro, Citadel Securities, Broadridge, S&P Global, Apollo and Tradeweb, rather than crypto native funds.

• Canton is a permission-less Layer 1 with configurable privacy, designed so institutions can settle onchain without exposing their positions.

• The capital is aimed at making Canton the settlement infrastructure for tokenised capital markets, starting in wholesale assets like bonds and funds.

• For founders, the signal is foundational: the rails that could one day carry tokenised private shares and secondary liquidity are being funded by the institutions that matter most.

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Sources

• CoinDesk, Canton Network developer Digital Asset raises $355 million to bring capital markets onchain

• The Block, a16z crypto leads $355 million raise for Canton developer Digital Asset

• Finextra, Digital Asset raises $355m to make Canton the onchain infrastructure for capital markets

• PR Newswire, Digital Asset Raises $355 Million to Accelerate Canton's Role as Onchain Infrastructure for Capital Markets