Blockchain developer Digital Asset announced a $135 million funding round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets. DRW previously founded Digital Asset. Institutional backers in the round include BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, the DTCC, Goldman Sachs and Virtu Financial. With the launch of the Canton Network, which Digital Asset positions as a public permissionless blockchain, the company has also attracted backing from the decentralized finance space including Circle, Paxos and QCP.
This marks Digital Asset’s first funding round since 2021 when it raised a $120 million Series D from Eldridge and 7RIDGE. At that time, its focus was the Daml smart contract language. Since then its emphasis has shifted to the Canton Network, looking to integrate some of the solutions built using its technology. Current standalone Canton networks include BNP Paribas’ Neobonds, Goldman Sachs’ Digital Assets Platform (GS DAP), HSBC’s Orion and Broadridge’s DLR repo solution that processes $1.5 trillion in transaction volumes monthly.
Bringing a variety of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) onto the same network opens up new use cases. Digital bonds could potentially be used as collateral, demonstrating the interoperability advantages that distinguish the Canton Network from isolated blockchain implementations.
Enterprise partnerships validate network capabilities
Digital Asset sees a major benefit of the Canton Network as the configurable privacy based on its origins as an enterprise solution. Other public blockchains sometimes look to layer on privacy using Zero Knowledge Proofs. While ZKP-based solutions are progressing, many don’t consider them ready for prime time. Canton’s enterprise heritage provides an alternative approach to blockchain privacy.
Among the backers announced today, BNP Paribas, DRW, Goldman Sachs, Liberty City Ventures, QCP and Tradeweb have played a role in the network, although in some cases involvement was purely testing. These partnerships demonstrate growing institutional confidence in the network’s capabilities. Tradeweb, known for its fixed income marketplaces, has been involved in multiple Canton solutions. It’s a participant in Goldman’s GS DAP and recently partnered with Novaprime to share data on mortgage forwards.
“Digital Asset and Canton are addressing real-world challenges in financial markets, not just theoretical concepts. The fact that such a wide range of asset classes are already integrated onto Canton is an important sign that this network is ready for mainstream finance,” said Billy Hult, Tradeweb CEO. “At Tradeweb, we see DLT and smart contracts as catalysts for reimagining and reshaping market structure—unlocking workflow efficiencies and accelerating the shift toward electronic markets.”
