Goldman Sachs and Citadel back crypto startup Digital Asset in $135M funding round to tokenize Wall Street

Crypto startup Digital Asset has secured a $135 million funding round, pulling in big names from traditional finance—including Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, and Citadel Securities—as the push to bring blockchain tech to Wall Street continues to pick up steam.

The round was co-led by DRW and Tradeweb, and underscores how large financial institutions are planting deeper roots in crypto, a space once written off as a playground for fraud and speculation.

Founded in 2014 by former trader Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset brands itself as a regulated player in a market that’s long struggled with trust and transparency. The firm has been building tools for financial giants like Goldman Sachs, Virtu, and Citadel, aiming to make blockchain useful for the kind of institutions that move trillions, not just tokens.

“With growing participation from global financial institutions and market participants, we expect this funding round to help us solidify our role as the backbone of digital finance,” Rooz said in an interview with CNBC.

A big piece of that vision is the Canton Network, an open-source blockchain built with financial firms in mind. Originally developed by Digital Asset, Canton is pitched as the infrastructure that banks and trading firms can use to move tokenized versions of real-world assets—like bonds, commodities, and money market funds—while still meeting compliance requirements.

Digital Asset says the network already supports trillions in tokenized assets and that the new capital will help onboard more financial products. “This raise will allow us to build upon the continuing momentum around the Canton Network and accelerate the onboarding of more high-quality assets, finally making blockchain’s transformative promise an institutional-scale reality,” Rooz said.

The company competes with blockchain infrastructure providers like Ripple, R3, and Consensys, all of which are chasing the same goal: making crypto infrastructure viable for the banks that once scoffed at it.

With JPMorgan recently launching its own deposit token—JPMD—and firms like Morgan Stanley circling the space, the message is clear: crypto isn’t just surviving; it’s quietly getting institutionalized.