Shinhan Investment's Yeouido headquarters [Shinhan Investment]
Shinhan Investment's Yeouido headquarters [Shinhan Investment]

Shinhan Investment has invested in Digital Asset, the operator of Canton Network, a blockchain network designed for institutional use, as part of its push to expand its digital asset business.

Shinhan Investment announced Monday that it had joined a $355 million funding round in Digital Asset, the company behind Canton Network, a blockchain network built for regulated financial markets. The round was led by a16z crypto, the cryptocurrency-focused fund of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Venture Investment co-invested in the round, aiming both to support Shinhan Financial Group's global digital business expansion and to generate investment returns.

Digital Asset is a blockchain technology company founded in 2014. It operates Canton Network, a privacy-focused blockchain network built for financial institutions.

Canton Network is a public layer-1 blockchain that supports institutional-grade privacy. It is recognized as infrastructure capable of migrating assets, applications and regulatory workflows onto a blockchain environment while meeting the privacy, compliance and interoperability requirements of the financial sector. Last month, Digital Asset signed MOUs with Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Asset Management to cooperate on digital assets and tokenization, deepening its ties with Shinhan Financial Group.

A Shinhan Investment official said the investment "demonstrates Shinhan Financial Group's interest in and confidence in blockchain infrastructure that regulated financial institutions can use with peace of mind," adding that the firm "holds Canton Network's privacy and compliance capabilities in high regard and is honored to join in building global infrastructure that can support institutional investors across Asia in accessing digital asset markets."

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, said the investment "reaffirmed the market's demand for infrastructure that allows regulated financial institutions to leverage shared networks while maintaining privacy and compliance."

Shinhan Investment said it plans to deepen cooperation with the Canton Network ecosystem following this investment and to actively lay the groundwork for domestic institutional investors to engage with digital assets. The firm also intends to continue identifying strategic investment opportunities in future financial technologies such as digital assets and blockchain.

Competition among financial investment firms to stake out early positions in digital assets is intensifying ahead of the STO regime's entry into the regulatory mainstream in February. Mirae Asset Group has acquired Korbit, Korea Investment & Securities has invested in Coinone, and Samsung Securities and Hanwha Investment have invested in Dunamu, as major brokerages move to secure footholds in virtual asset exchanges and blockchain infrastructure.


hajun825@heraldcorp.com