Institutional blockchain infrastructure provider Digital Asset raised $135 million from investors including Goldman Sachs and Citadel.
According to a Tuesday announcement, Digital Asset raised $135 million in a strategic funding round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from financial heavyweights including Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, BNP Paribas and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Crypto-focused backers included Paxos, Polychain Capital and Circle Ventures.
Digital Asset said the funding is intended to accelerate the adoption of institutional and decentralized finance on its Canton Network.
Canton Network is a permissionless layer-1 blockchain that offers configurable privacy and institutional-grade compliance. With the new capital, Digital Asset hopes to expand the integration of “billions” of real-world assets (RWAs) into the network.
Digital Assets had not answered Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication.
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Canton Network’s institutional adoption
Digital Asset and a group of firms, including Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Deloitte, announced the Canton Network in May 2023. In September 2024, Digital Asset and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) completed their US Treasury Collateral Network pilot project on the Canton Network.
In early October 2024, Digital Asset completed another large pilot project with clearing and settlement service Euroclear, the World Gold Council and global law firm Clifford Chance. As part of this initiative, gold and bonds — Eurobonds and gilts — were tokenized on the Canton Network.
As of mid-March 2024, the Canton Network had seen institutional investors execute over 350 simulated transactions via distributed ledger technology in areas such as tokenized assets, fund registry, digital cash, repo, securities lending and margin management. The tests involved 15 asset managers, 13 banks, four custodians, three exchanges and Paxos. Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, said:
“Canton is already actively supporting numerous asset classes–from bonds to alternative funds–and this raise will accelerate onboarding even more real-world assets, finally making blockchain’s transformative promise an institutional-scale reality.”
Related: Robinhood proposes SEC rules for tokenized real-world assets
Real-world assets see precipitous growth
RWAs surged in the first half of 2025 amid increasing regulatory clarity. The total RWA market increased by over 260% during the first half of 2025, surpassing $23 billion in total valuation.
The RWA industry is a hot spot of development. Earlier this month, cryptocurrency payment platform Alchemy Pay expanded into RWAs through a new partnership with tokenization firm Backed, allowing access to tokenized US investment products.
Also, this month, US investment manager Guggenheim expanded its digital commercial paper offering through a partnership with Ripple. As a result, the firm’s fixed-income product will be available on the XRP Ledger.
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