Cancore raises $7.2M in seed funding to connect tokenized assets to public blockchain liquidity

Cancore, a blockchain startup building infrastructure to connect tokenized financial assets with public blockchain liquidity, has raised $7.2 million in seed funding to address one of the biggest challenges in tokenized finance: moving capital between institutional blockchain networks and public crypto markets.

The round drew backing from Paper Ventures, dao5, ArkStream Capital, X Ventures, MH Ventures, and Proof of Talk. The investment comes as financial institutions continue exploring tokenization, a process that turns traditional assets such as bonds, securities, and other financial instruments into digital tokens that can be traded and settled on blockchain networks.

But putting financial assets on a blockchain is only part of the equation. Those assets still need access to buyers, sellers, and liquidity across different networks. That’s the gap Cancore wants to close.

Built on the Canton Network, a blockchain infrastructure designed for institutional finance, Cancore connects Canton-based assets with liquidity on public networks, including Ethereum-compatible blockchains and Tron.

The startup has been operating on Canton mainnet since April 2026, serving as both a validator and a Featured App.

Unlike many early-stage blockchain startups still developing their first products, Cancore has already recorded meaningful trading activity. As of October 1, the company reported more than $53.2 million in cumulative trading volume across over 84,000 transactions, generating more than $538,000 in protocol revenue.

Those figures have since grown. In an October 27 interview with The Block, Cancore co-founder and CEO Wasif Rashid said the platform had processed more than $86 million across 160,000 trades, with revenue exceeding $700,000.

The company closed its financing in mid-September through agreements for future tokens, valuing its planned CNRX token at $60 million on a fully diluted basis, Rashid told The Block. That figure reflects the token’s implied valuation, not a conventional equity valuation of Cancore.

Building the missing link between tokenized assets and AI trading

Cancore’s approach centers on an execution system that lets users trade assets between Canton and public blockchain networks without surrendering control of their funds to a centralized intermediary.

The platform uses atomic settlement, a mechanism intended to prevent one side of a cross-chain transaction from completing independently of the other. If both sides cannot settle, the transaction reverses or is refunded under the applicable settlement rules.

Users maintain control of their private keys through Cancore’s self-custody wallet.

The startup is pursuing another opportunity beyond cross-chain trading: AI agents that can manage financial transactions.

Through a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, Cancore supports automated platform actions and AI-assisted trade execution. Its longer-term plan is to let users create trading agents that execute strategies, rebalance portfolios, and allocate capital across tokenized assets and blockchain liquidity pools.

“Tokenization is bringing a growing range of financial assets onchain, but making those assets programmable is the next step,” said Wasif Rashid, co-founder and CEO of Cancore. “We see a future where users can deploy capital across tokenized assets and use agents to execute strategies and manage positions on their behalf.”

That vision comes with technical and financial risks. Cross-chain transactions require reliable settlement infrastructure, and autonomous trading systems introduce questions about security, execution errors, and oversight. Cancore’s ability to manage those risks will matter as it targets more sophisticated financial activity.

Investors see an opportunity in the infrastructure connecting otherwise separate blockchain markets.

“In traditional markets, much of the value sits with the infrastructure that moves capital between venues: clearing, settlement, prime brokerage,” said Danish Chaudhry, General Partner at Paper Ventures. “Tokenized markets will need the same layer, and between Canton and public chains it barely exists today. Cancore is building it to the security standard institutions expect, and we think this team is well placed to define how tokenized capital moves across networks.”

Cancore plans to use the fresh funding to support additional blockchain integrations, expand liquidity sources, and strengthen its settlement, security, and AI trading infrastructure.

The broader question is whether tokenized assets can move beyond isolated financial networks and become part of a connected, liquid market. Cancore bets that the infrastructure enabling those transactions could become as valuable as the assets themselves.