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We all know that there’s some serious institutional demand out there for crypto. Two announcements made this week just prove that TradFi institutions are putting their money where their mouth is.
In the case of Digital Asset, I mean that literally. The firm behind the Canton Network announced that it raised $135 million in a funding round led by DRW and Tradeweb, but it was some of the participating names that really caught my eye.
Goldman Sachs, Citadel and BNP Paribas were also investors. Notably, both Goldman and BNP have been partnered with Canton since 2023, well before the tide turned for crypto.
According to a press release, the funding will be used to expand the integration of real-world assets on the network, including “bonds, money market funds, alternative funds, commodities, repurchase agreements (repos), mortgages, life insurance, and annuities.”
“This funding milestone validates the inevitability of what we envisioned years ago: a privacy-enabled public blockchain designed specifically for institutional adoption,” Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz said.
“Canton is already actively supporting numerous asset classes — from bonds to alternative funds — and this raise will accelerate onboarding even more real-world assets, finally making blockchain’s transformative promise an institutional-scale reality.”
Then there’s Fiserv’s announcement yesterday, which notably comes on the heels of JPMorgan’s deposit token.
ICYMI: The payments provider is debuting a bank-friendly stablecoin, FIUSD, that’ll be incorporated into its infrastructure by the end of this year.
It’ll utilize infra from both Paxos and Circle, and is — interestingly enough — making FIUSD available to clients via Solana.
“In addition, the company is exploring the use of deposit tokens to maintain the benefits of stablecoins in a more capital-friendly structure for banks. Fiserv is active in discussions with other potential partners to further expand use cases for stablecoins and tokenized deposits, both in the United States and internationally,” the firm added.
What makes FIUSD bank-friendly, according to the release, is that it can be integrated with a Software Development Kit that is suitable for the customer-facing platforms already offered by Fiserv. It’ll also offer fraud monitoring, risk management and settlement controls for banks so that they can manage compliance.
Are either of these announcements surprising? I think everyone can see the writing on the wall. However, both of them show that the building blocks are being put in place for a more crypto-focused future for institutions, which is why it continues to be important to watch.
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