Digital Asset Funding Round Hits $355M Led by a16z

Steady attention without excessive speculation.

According to the official PR Newswire release, a16z crypto contributed $100 million of the total. The round drew most of Wall Street to the cap table. As a result, it ranks among the largest strategic raises in institutional blockchain to date.

Inside the Digital Asset Funding Round

The Digital Asset funding round was oversubscribed. Coverage from CoinDesk notes that it beat an earlier target of about $300 million. The final $2 billion valuation reflects that demand.

Some secondary sources describe the deal as a Series F. Digital Asset itself framed it as a strategic raise. Either way, FT Partners served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor on the transaction.

The company plans to use the capital to scale the Canton ecosystem. In practice, that means expanding tokenization, deepening regulated workflows, and pulling more institutions onchain. Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset’s co-founder and CEO, tied the raise directly to that goal.

“For capital markets to move onchain, institutions need infrastructure that reflects how they actually operate,” Rooz said in the release. He added that Digital Asset now works with more than 700 ecosystem participants on Canton.

The raise also extends a fast-moving fundraising streak. In June 2025, Digital Asset closed a $135 million strategic round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb. So the company has now pulled in nearly half a billion dollars in under a year.

Wall Street Lines Up Behind Canton

The investor list reads like a roll call of global finance. Alongside a16z crypto, it includes HSBC, BNP Paribas, Apollo Funds, Citadel Securities, and Optiver. S&P Global, Tradeweb, SoFi, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority also joined.

Crypto-native backers took part too. Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, CME Ventures, and SBI Group all appear on the roster. In total, more than two dozen firms committed to the deal.

Many of those names already build on Canton. HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Citadel Securities use the network or its pilots. Because of that overlap, the round doubles as a vote of confidence from active users, not just outside capital.

Ali Yahya, a general partner at a16z crypto, framed the bet around real adoption. “Digital Asset has built one of the clearest examples of blockchain product-market fit in regulated finance,” he said. So the firm is treating Canton as foundational market infrastructure rather than a speculative play.

What the Canton Network Actually Does

Canton is a public Layer-1 blockchain built for institutions. Unlike Ethereum, where every transaction is visible, Canton keeps participant data private by design. Each party sees only the transactions that involve them.

A component called the Global Synchronizer ties the network together. It sequences transactions across applications so they settle atomically. Still, it never sees the contents of those transactions.

The network runs on Daml, a smart contract language built for multi-party financial workflows. Because Daml enforces privacy at the contract level, banks can settle repo, collateral, and token issuance without exposing sensitive positions. That combination is why regulated firms favor it over fully transparent chains.

From DTCC to Goldman, Real Workflows Go Onchain

The raise lands on top of growing production use. In December 2025, the DTCC partnered with Digital Asset to tokenize DTC-custodied U.S. Treasury securities on Canton. That pilot targets a minimum viable product in the first half of 2026.

Other institutions are already live. HSBC completed a tokenized deposit pilot, while Broadridge processes significant daily Treasury repo volume on a Canton subnet. Goldman Sachs issues debt instruments on the network and plans to run its own Super Validator.

According to figures cited in the funding release, the network now counts over 700 ecosystem participants and 40-plus Super Validators. Secondary reports referenced by Messari put Canton-linked fees near $193 million in the first quarter of 2026.

How the Canton Token Reacted

Canton has a native token, CC, which trades on major venues. According to CoinMarketCap, CC traded near $0.16 around the announcement, with a market cap of roughly $6.3 billion. Circulating supply sits near 38.78 billion CC.

The market reaction was modest rather than explosive. One report noted an intraday move of about 3% tied to the news. However, the token still sat below its February 2026 high near 19 cents.

That muted response fits the pattern. So far, CC has reacted more to tokenization milestones, such as the DTCC deal, than to financing news. None of this is financial advice, and token prices can move sharply in either direction.

What the Raise Signals Next

The Digital Asset funding round gives Canton fresh capital at a moment when tokenized assets are moving from pilot to production. With Treasuries, deposits, and repo already onchain, the next test is scale.

Watch the DTCC Treasury product, which targets a launch window in the first half of 2026. If it ships on schedule, Canton could convert Wall Street’s backing into live, regulated volume. That outcome would tell investors whether this $2 billion valuation holds.