Digital Asset, which builds the Canton Network, an open-source public blockchain for regulated financial institutions, raised $135M co-led by DRW and Tradeweb
Crypto company Digital Asset said Tuesday that it's netted $135 million in funding from a raft of major names in banking and finance.
Context & Ripple Effects
Digital Asset had already raised a $40M Series B for financial-institution blockchain technology in 2017. This financing brings market-making and trading-venue capital directly behind its effort to build shared infrastructure for regulated institutions.
The round became an early step in a larger funding arc: later coverage reported a $355M Canton funding round that included a16z Crypto and a reported valuation near $2B. That progression makes this raise relevant as institutional backing for a network rather than a standalone crypto product.
First-order effects
- Digital Asset gains $135M to develop the Canton Network, while DRW and Tradeweb become financially aligned with infrastructure aimed at regulated financial-market use cases.
- The participation of major finance names gives Canton a stronger institutional reference base as it seeks adoption among the institutions it is designed to serve.
Second-order effects
- Other blockchain providers targeting financial institutions face a clearer benchmark: capital providers and prospective users may favor networks with credible market-structure participants already involved.
- For Digital Asset, investor participation can create channels for product feedback and potential deployment discussions, though funding alone does not establish production usage.
Third-order effects
- If subsequent institutional participation translates into use, regulated-market blockchain competition may increasingly center on interoperable shared networks and privacy controls rather than consumer-crypto scale.
- The pattern tests the later, substantially larger Canton financing as a durable institutional-infrastructure thesis; its outcome depends on whether regulated firms convert sponsorship into adoption.
The trend: This is one data point in the gradual institutionalization of blockchain infrastructure for regulated financial-market workflows.