Digital Asset Holdings has closed a $355 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s main crypto fund, marking another major vote of confidence for institutional blockchain infrastructure. a16z crypto contributed $100 million to the raise, which drew participation from a who's who of TradFi and crypto investors, including Citadel Securities, Apollo, BNP Paribas, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, Optiver and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The financing — reported as a Series F in public filings and social posts — comes after May reports that Digital Asset was seeking roughly $300 million at a valuation near $2 billion. The fresh capital will be used for partnerships, acquisitions and ecosystem growth as the company expands Canton Network, its layer-1 blockchain built for regulated financial workflows and tokenized assets.
What is Canton Network
- Canton is designed for institutions that require privacy, strong controls and smart-contract functionality. It supports selective privacy so market participants can keep sensitive trade or client data confidential while still enabling shared settlement across counterparties.
- The network targets banks, asset managers, exchanges and market makers for use cases such as tokenized issuance, settlement, collateral movement and other real-world-asset workflows.
- Digital Asset says Canton has already supported about $6 trillion in tokenized issuance and employs a two-tier consensus model intended to enable horizontal scaling while keeping smart contracts interoperable across connected applications.
Why investors are interested
Many regulated firms cannot run sensitive activity on fully transparent public chains. Canton’s privacy and control features aim to remove that barrier, letting traditional financial institutions experiment with tokenized bonds, money market funds, collateral utilities and stablecoin settlement without exposing confidential information. Visa, for example, joined Canton as a Super Validator in March 2026 and later added the network to its stablecoin settlement pilot — a sign of growing corporate engagement.
A pattern of institutional support
The $355 million round builds on prior capital raises. In 2025 Digital Asset raised $50 million from backers including Nasdaq and BNY Mellon, and it previously secured $135 million in a strategic round backed by firms such as Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, DTCC, BNP Paribas and Tradeweb Markets. Digital Asset remains privately held.
Takeaway
The deal underlines continued investor appetite for blockchain infrastructure tailored to regulated finance, even as broader crypto markets fluctuate. As banks and market operators step up tokenization pilots for bonds, money market instruments and settlement rails, projects that blend privacy, compliance and interoperability — like Canton — are attracting significant institutional capital.
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