What's Driving Goldman Sachs And Citadel Into Crypto? The $135M Digital Asset Funding Round Explained

by Murtuza J Merchant Benzinga Staff Writer

Zinger Key Points

Canton Network aims to synchronize asset settlements in real-time while ensuring privacy, scalability and regulatory compliance.
Investors say Canton solves privacy and interoperability issues that have hindered blockchain’s institutional growth.
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Digital Asset, the developer behind the Canton Network, has raised $135 million in a funding round backed by major Wall Street players including Goldman Sachs GS and Citadel Securities, alongside leading crypto investors.

The round, led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, signals growing institutional confidence in blockchain solutions designed for traditional finance.

The new capital will accelerate the onboarding of real-world assets onto the Canton Network, which Digital Asset describes as the first public, permissionless Layer-1 blockchain offering configurable privacy for institutional use.

The network already supports a broad range of assets, including bonds, commodities, repos, mortgages, and alternative funds.

Other participants in the round include BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), IMC, Liberty City Ventures, Optiver, Paxos, Polychain Capital, QCP, Republic Digital, 7RIDGE and Virtu Financial.

Also Read: New Crypto Fund Targets Early Builders: Is This Where The Next Blockchain Unicorn Starts?

Goldman Sachs' Mathew McDermott said, "Our longstanding relationship with Digital Asset stems from a deep conviction in the strength of their technology, which continues to be foundational to the development and ongoing success of GS DAP."

Don Wilson, CEO of DRW, emphasized the maturity of the market, stating, "We are at the inflection point of being able to use blockchain at scale in traditional markets."

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The funding is set to bolster Canton’s position as a blockchain protocol tailored for regulated institutions, offering privacy controls that have long been a barrier to enterprise blockchain adoption.

Digital Asset says Canton already has nearly 400 participants within its ecosystem, reflecting momentum among both traditional and decentralized finance players.

Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz added, "This funding milestone validates the inevitability of what we envisioned years ago: a privacy-enabled public blockchain designed specifically for institutional adoption."

The Canton Network enables asset synchronization across financial markets with an emphasis on real-time, private, and interoperable settlement, a feature that its backers see as a step toward modernizing financial infrastructure.

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