What Is Canton Network and Why Is a16z Crypto Investing $300 Million?

TLDR

• Digital Asset Holdings is raising ~$300M at a ~$2B valuation, led by a16z crypto
• The round follows a $135M raise in June 2025 and a $50M raise in December 2025
• Canton Network has processed over $6 trillion in tokenized assets
• Institutional backers include Goldman Sachs, Visa, DTCC, Citadel Securities, and Nasdaq
• a16z crypto raised a $2.2B fund just days before leading this round

Digital Asset Holdings, the company behind the Canton Network, is in talks to raise around $300 million at a valuation of roughly $2 billion. The round is being led by a16z crypto, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.

🚨DIGITAL ASSET SAID TO RAISE $300M AT $2B VALUATION

Digital Asset, the company behind Canton Network, is reportedly raising about $300 million at a $2 billion valuation, per Bloomberg.

Once confirmed, this would be the company’s biggest fundraise yet, as Canton continues to… pic.twitter.com/byYBZJdLrH

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) May 10, 2026

The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks. Neither Digital Asset nor a16z publicly confirmed the report.

This would be Digital Asset’s largest fundraise to date. The company raised $135 million in June 2025, led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets. That round included participation from Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, and DTCC.

In December 2025, Digital Asset raised another $50 million. That round was backed by BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, S&P Global, and iCapital.

The Canton Network is a Layer 1 blockchain built for financial institutions. It uses configurable privacy features and supports smart contracts written in Digital Asset’s open-source language, Daml.

More than $6 trillion in tokenized assets have been issued or processed on the network to date.

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Growing Institutional Adoption

Visa became a Canton Super Validator in March 2026, marking the payment giant’s first blockchain governance role. Visa also added Canton to its stablecoin settlement pilot in April, alongside Base, Polygon, Arc, and Tempo.

In March 2026, Moody’s deployed its ratings data directly on the Canton Network. It became the first credit ratings firm to publish data onchain.

Japan Securities Clearing Corporation began testing onchain government bonds on the network in April. The tests focus on whether ownership of Japan’s government bonds can be transferred onchain and used as digital collateral.

Swiss crypto bank Amina announced custody and trading support for Canton Coin earlier in May. Amina is the first bank regulated by Switzerland’s FINMA to support the token.

In December 2025, Digital Asset, Canton Network, and DTCC announced a partnership to tokenize DTCC-custodied assets. DTCC holds around $114 trillion in liquid assets and plans to pilot tokenized trading in July 2026, with a full launch targeted for October.

a16z Crypto’s Broader Push

The investment comes just days after a16z crypto announced it had closed a $2.2 billion fund, its fifth dedicated crypto vehicle. The firm now has around $10 billion in total crypto capital committed across its funds.

A16z general partner Ali Yahya wrote in January that privacy is the critical missing feature blocking global finance from moving fully onchain. Canton’s protocol-level privacy features directly match that thesis.

Crypto venture funding overall has slowed. Quarterly deal counts fell from 427 in Q1 2025 to just 97 in Q1 2026. Some longtime crypto backers are shifting focus toward AI and robotics.

Despite that backdrop, large funds are still deploying capital. Haun Ventures closed a $1 billion raise last week, and a16z’s latest fund closing shows major players remain active in the space.