Digital Asset, the company behind the Canton Network and the Daml smart contract language, has expanded its ongoing funding round with an additional $10 million from Shinhan Financial Group and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, bringing the total raised to $365 million while maintaining the company's equity valuation at $2.0 billion.

According to reporting published on July 21, 2026, the extension brings two strategically significant financial institutions onto Digital Asset's cap table without altering the headline valuation. Digital Asset's own announcement confirmed both backers and characterized the round extension as strategic rather than purely financial (The Block; Digital Asset).

Strategic Significance of the Backers

Both Shinhan Financial Group and SC Ventures have established track records in tokenization and programmable finance. Shinhan, one of South Korea's largest financial groups, has been active in experiments involving deposit tokens and on-chain settlement. The bank's participation deepens Canton Network's positioning in Asian markets, where cross-border payments, foreign exchange use cases, and digital asset regulatory frameworks are rapidly developing. South Korea has been advancing digital asset legislation, including frameworks for security token offerings and institutional crypto custody, which creates a more receptive environment for Canton's compliance-oriented architecture.

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation and ventures arm, has focused on market infrastructure including custody, tokenized deposits, and programmable payments. Standard Chartered has been among the more active global banks in digital assets, having backed Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, and having published research projecting significant growth in institutional adoption of tokenized assets. Its investment aligns with Digital Asset's long-standing "network-of-networks" narrative — positioning Canton as a platform for bank-grade confidentiality with selective data sharing and compliance integration.

Why a Flat Valuation

A flat round extension typically indicates that the company prioritizes strategic alignment over a higher valuation mark. In this case, Digital Asset appears focused on securing distribution partners and compliance capabilities rather than maximizing its headline number. The flat $2 billion valuation also reflects the current state of institutional tokenization, where major banks are running controlled pilots — moving collateral, testing settlement windows, and evaluating infrastructure — but revenue-bearing production deployments remain in early stages. Digital Asset's history illustrates the difficulty of this transition: its earlier work on the Australian Securities Exchange's blockchain-based CHESS replacement was shelved by ASX in 2022 after years of development, underscoring the gap between proof-of-concept success and production deployment in regulated markets.

Canton Network Incentive Changes: CIP-0105 and Validator Locking

Alongside the funding news, Canton Network has undergone significant changes to its incentive structure. Canton Improvement Proposal CIP-0105, paired with CIP-0116, introduces a requirement that Super Validators lock 70% of the Canton Coin (CC) they earn as rewards. The measure is designed to align long-term infrastructure uptime and security with token exposure, and to reduce near-term selling pressure.

Shortly after the CIPs were published, Canton Strategic Holdings announced it would offer a commercial "locking as a service" to help ecosystem participants meet the new requirements (PR Newswire). The service simplifies compliance for smaller operators but introduces an additional operational dependency, as concentration of locking capacity through a single provider could create a potential point of failure.

The 70% locking rule has several practical implications for validators. Circulating supply growth from rewards will slow, which may reduce sell pressure but also limits operator flexibility. New entrants must now incorporate long lock-up periods into their hardware, staking, and cash flow models rather than relying on nominal annual percentage yields.

Builder Ecosystem: Palladium Labs Genesis Fund

On the builder side, Palladium Labs launched a 10 million CC Genesis Fund, valued at approximately $1.5 million at prevailing prices, to provide grants and support for teams building on Canton (Chainwire). The fund is targeted at early-stage projects, particularly those developing middleware for regulated workflows — including KYC layers, permissioning gateways, compliance tooling, asset-servicing tools for tokenized bonds or funds, and connectivity adapters to traditional banking infrastructure.

Canton's Positioning for Real-World Assets

Canton Network differentiates itself from public layer-1 blockchains through its privacy-first architecture. Where public chains like Ethereum and Avalanche offer transparency by default with privacy available through add-ons or specialized layer-2 solutions, Canton provides selective disclosure by contract, designed specifically for institutional workflows. Canton features permissioned participants with policy-enforced connectivity between applications, built-in governance hooks for regulated entities, and Daml smart contracts optimized for modeling financial agreements. Canton is not alone in targeting this institutional niche — R3's Corda and Hyperledger Fabric have pursued similar permissioned architectures, though Canton's interoperability-first design and growing bank participation distinguish its approach.

The trade-off is that Canton's ecosystem liquidity depends heavily on bank participation and curated institutional involvement, whereas public chains offer deep, global liquidity for native crypto assets with improving real-world asset bridging. Canton's operational model reduces data leakage risk but introduces vendor concentration and onboarding overhead.

Risks and Considerations

Several risk factors are relevant to Canton Network's trajectory. On execution, banks have experienced stalled blockchain pilots in the past, and the next wave of Canton deployments will need to demonstrate tangible cost or capital efficiency. On governance, flat rounds dominated by strategic bank investors could raise concerns among independent builders about whether the network prioritizes bank interests disproportionately. Transparency around roadmap priorities, CIP approvals, and validator roster management will be important.

Token and validator risks center on the new locking mandates. While 70% locking can strengthen long-term alignment, it also amplifies illiquidity during periods of stress. The regulatory classification of network tokens remains fluid across jurisdictions, and banks are particularly sensitive to classification changes.

Key Details Summary

• Round size: Increased by $10 million from Shinhan Financial Group and SC Ventures, bringing the total to $365 million (The Block; Digital Asset).
• Valuation: Equity valuation held flat at $2.0 billion.
• Validator economics: CIP-0105 requires Super Validators to lock 70% of CC rewards, with CIP-0116 as a companion proposal (PR Newswire).
• Builder funding: Palladium Labs announced a 10 million CC Genesis Fund, approximately $1.5 million at current prices (Chainwire).

What to Watch

Key indicators for Canton Network's progress include production deployments with named counterparties, validator onboarding under the new locking rules, and evidence that bank-backed pilots are converting into revenue-bearing workflows. The critical signal will be the first settlements that move real cash and securities between identified counterparties on production infrastructure.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.