Institutional blockchain infrastructure provider Digital Asset, the creator of the Canton Network, has raised about $50 million in strategic investments from BNY, iCapital, Nasdaq and S&P Global, according to a person familiar with the deal.
According to an announcement on Thursday, the strategic funding will build on Digital Asset’s strong momentum to scale the Canton Network following recent funding milestones that raised $135 million.
The participation of these four big names highlights the range of institutions supporting the Canton Network, as big banks, exchanges, data, and wealth infrastructure all lend their weight to the same underlying blockchain stack.
“Institutions across the financial ecosystem recognize the necessity of blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for regulated markets,” said Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset. “The addition of BNY, iCapital, S&P Global, and Nasdaq marks another milestone in the evolution of both Digital Asset and Canton.”
Canton Network’s bet on institutional rails
The Canton Network is a public, permissionless layer-1 blockchain with a focus on institutional-grade compliance and configurable privacy. According to the company, Canton now underpins trillions of dollars’ worth of tokenized real‑world assets, with more than 600 institutions and validators participating across the network.
Related: Tokenized money market funds surge to $9B; BIS warns of new risks
The latest investor roster to back Canton suggests that the network’s thesis is resonating with large incumbents who want public‑chain benefits without sacrificing privacy or regulatory comfort. Canton pitches itself as a “network of networks” with configurable privacy and compliance controls, explicitly aimed at regulated markets rather than retail DeFi experimentation.
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton is already building on these rails. In October, the $1.6 trillion asset manager said it would move its Benji Investments platform, which tokenizes shares of its flagship US money market fund, onto Canton Network, extending a live tokenized-fund product that previously ran on public chains into Canton’s institutional ecosystem.
Unlike other networks, Canton avoided the ICO route. Its tokenomics are designed to favor validators and applications that drive real transaction activity on the network, rather than pure token speculation, as Rootz previously told Cointelegraph:
“Our thesis was focused on serving large-scale institutions. We’ve been very patient. We refused to do an ICO. We refuse to do a token pre-mine. We’ve really thought about the tokenomics.”
Related: VC Roundup: elective capital, shrinking rounds highlight crypto’s cautious reset
Part of a broader institutional thaw
A person familiar with the deal told Cointelegraph that the latest investments build directly on Digital Asset’s $135 million strategic round earlier this year, which brought in DRW, Tradeweb, Goldman Sachs, DTCC, Citadel Securities, Paxos, and others to help scale Canton and onboard more real‑world assets.
The timing is notable. This week, Vanguard, the second-largest asset manager in the world, announced that it would finally allow its clients to start trading crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds on its platform, reversing its prior anti-Bitcoin stance.
Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, also revised its policy on crypto, reportedly recommending a 1%–4% allocation to its wealth management clients.
At the same time, Coinbase is deepening work with major US banks on stablecoin, custody and settlement pilots, positioning itself as plumbing for institutions that don’t want to build everything in‑house.
Against this backdrop, a single stack that now counts banks, an exchange operator, a data and index giant and a wealth‑tech company as investors is a strong indicator of where the industry expects long‑term onchain market infrastructure to live. As Brian Ruane, head of Global Clearing, Credit Services and Corporate Trust at BNY, commented:
“As capital markets move faster toward a real-time, always-on operating model, the development of financial infrastructure that seamlessly connects digital and traditional markets has never been more important. We’re excited to work with Digital Asset and Canton to continue advancing privacy-enabled and interoperable settlement solutions at institutional scale.”
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