Digital Asset, the developer behind the Canton network, has secured $355 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto. The round saw participation from major investors including a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, S&P Global, SBI Group, SoFi, and Tradeweb. CEO Yuval Rooz confirmed that the funding was equity-based, with many investors being potential users of the Canton network. The capital will be used to enhance collaborations with institutional partners, pursue mergers and acquisitions, and engage in related projects. Canton, a public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain, is designed for institutional finance, offering privacy-configurable and asset tokenization workflows. The network has already facilitated the issuance of approximately $6 trillion in assets, with companies like JPMorgan, DTCC, and Visa deploying applications or participating in validation.