Digital Asset has bumped its latest funding round to $365 million after adding Shinhan Financial Group and Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, strengthening institutional support for its Canton blockchain aimed at regulated finance.
The company confirmed that Shinhan and SC Ventures joined an already oversubscribed round, contributing a combined $10 million and bringing the total to $365 million from the $355 million previously announced. A person familiar with the matter told The Block the investments were made at the same $2 billion equity valuation used in the earlier tranche.
The round is led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, a16z crypto, and includes a who’s who of global finance and crypto investors: ABN AMRO, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (via a subsidiary), Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Hanwha Investment & Securities, HSBC, S&P Global, and SBI Group.
Why it matters
Digital Asset’s Canton Network is a public Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for regulated financial institutions. Rather than prioritizing open public activity, Canton focuses on enabling institutions to move assets, applications and financial workflows onchain while preserving privacy, compliance, interoperability and operational control — features many banks and asset managers require before moving from experimentation to production.
“Blockchain adoption in financial markets will be driven by institutions that are ready to move beyond experimentation and into production,” said Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuval Rooz. He said adding Shinhan and Standard Chartered brings “global reach, market expertise, and ecosystem connectivity” at a key moment for Canton, and stressed the network’s privacy- and compliance-friendly infrastructure.
Strategic investors and regional traction
Shinhan Financial Group, South Korea’s largest banking group, is expected to help accelerate institutional blockchain adoption in Korea and complements Digital Asset’s recent partnerships with Hanwha. SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation and investment arm, brings digital-asset and fintech experience plus institutional networks across international markets. Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, framed the investment as a bet on “trusted, institutional-grade market infrastructure” as central to scaling regulated digital asset markets.
Shinhan affiliates have already engaged with Canton: Shinhan Asset Management and Shinhan Investment & Securities signed agreements with the Canton Foundation to study tokenized assets, local regulations and cross-border market access. Those relationships helped position Canton in South Korea’s emerging tokenized finance sector ahead of Canton’s native token listing on local exchange Bithumb.
Network and product momentum
Digital Asset said the fresh capital will be used to expand applications across the Canton ecosystem, deepen engagement with developers and financial institutions, and support continued network growth. The announcement comes as banks and asset managers increasingly evaluate privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure for tokenization, collateral mobility, settlement, payments and other regulated workflows.
Institutional interest in Canton has picked up this year. Visa tested stablecoin settlement on Canton using Brale’s SBC stablecoin to explore private onchain settlement for institutional payments. Canton also rolled out its CIP-0119 protocol upgrade — extending transfer preapprovals to 90 days and removing an onboarding requirement that new users already hold Canton Coin (CC). Meanwhile, CC gained more retail access when Bithumb listed the token on its Korean won market.
Financial products tied to Canton are emerging too: Grayscale filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Canton Coin ETF, which would allow traditional investors to gain exposure to CC through brokerage accounts.
Bottom line
The additional investments from Shinhan and SC Ventures not only pad a blue-chip investor roster but also strengthen Canton’s ties to Asian banking networks and cross-border institutional partners — a strategic boost as the project pushes to make privacy-forward, compliant blockchain infrastructure usable for mainstream finance.
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