Digital Asset Holdings, the New York-based company behind the Canton Network, is in advanced talks with Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto to raise approximately $300 million at a valuation of roughly $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. The round has not closed, and final terms could still change. Investment bank FT Partners is advising Digital Asset on the deal. Neither the company nor a16z has commented publicly.
From Daml to Canton: A Decade of Institutional Blockchain
Founded in October 2014 by Yuval Rooz, Eric Saraniecki, Shaul Kfir, Sunil Hirani, and Don R. Wilson of DRW, Digital Asset has spent over a decade building distributed ledger technology for institutional capital markets. Its flagship products include Daml, an open-source smart contract language for finance, and the Canton Network, a public Layer 1 blockchain launched in 2023 alongside Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Börse, BNP Paribas, and others. Canton offers configurable, protocol-level privacy—counterparties share only data needed to settle a transaction, unlike fully transparent chains like Ethereum or Solana. Its Global Synchronizer, governed by the Canton Foundation, enables real-time asset and data synchronization across applications and subnets without bridges. Institutions use Canton for tokenized real-world assets, repo financing, collateral mobility, and settlement.
Wall Street Embrace: Over $6 Trillion in Tokenized Assets
Adoption is accelerating. In March 2026, Visa became the first payments firm to serve as a Super Validator, adding Canton to its stablecoin settlement pilot. DTCC announced collaboration with Digital Asset to tokenize DTC-custodied U.S. Treasuries, targeting 2026. HSBC, S&P Global, BNY Mellon, Citadel Securities, Nasdaq, and Euroclear are among active participants and validators. To date, Canton has processed or issued over $6 trillion in tokenized assets.
Digital Asset's prior major rounds include a ~$135 million strategic round in June 2025 led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, DTCC, and BNP Paribas participating, followed by a ~$50 million extension in December 2025 from BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, S&P Global, and iCapital.
a16z Crypto's Bet on Privacy-First Infrastructure
a16z crypto closed its $2.2 billion Crypto Fund V this year, bringing its total dedicated crypto capital to roughly $10 billion. The firm has publicly identified protocol-level privacy as a missing capability slowing blockchain adoption in regulated markets. That thesis aligns directly with Digital Asset's design. Fresh capital would let Digital Asset scale developer tools, add subnets, expand ecosystem onboarding, and push into cross-border pilots and global collateral network applications. The company remains privately held.
The broader tokenization market has drawn significant institutional attention in 2026, with banks, custodians, and index providers moving assets on-chain. Digital Asset is positioning Canton as compliant, privacy-preserving infrastructure for regulated institutions. The round is not finalized; more details are expected in the coming weeks.