Q&A with Digital Asset on Growing Tokenization Momentum
Key Takeaways
- Canton Network, a blockchain built by Digital Asset, is positioned as institutional-grade infrastructure for bringing regulated financial workflows onchain.
- Tokenized collateral can improve asset mobility, collateral velocity and balance sheet efficiency.
- Adoption is shifting from experimentation to practical use cases with measurable economic value.
- Strategic partnerships are central to expanding onchain assets, market infrastructure and institutional adoption.
Tokenization is one of the central themes shaping the next generation of markets. As use cases like tokenized collateral continue to emerge and prove out in the real world, institutional interest is growing in the efficiencies and benefits tokenization can provide.
But driving institutional adoption at scale will require intention and collaboration in creating the infrastructure needed to support capital markets operations. We sat down with Digital Asset, the creators of Canton Network, and their Chief Business Development Officer, Kelly Mahieson.
Q: Can you share the vision behind the Canton Network and the role it aims to play in modernizing financial market infrastructure?
Mathieson: More than a decade ago, the founders of Digital Asset recognized that blockchain technology had the potential to transform capital markets and also understood that finance needed infrastructure that met the requirements of regulated markets. With a pragmatic approach, deep capital-markets expertise, and trusted institutional relationships, Digital Asset built the Canton Network to bring the operating model of modern finance onchain: privacy, control, governance, compliance, and production-grade market infrastructure.
Instead of creating a blockchain that would replace legacy financial infrastructure, Canton is designed to provide existing financial market infrastructure with a network to modernize settlement, collateral, financing, and asset mobility. Our vision is for Canton to become the network where cash, government securities, repo, stablecoins, money market funds, collateral, and foreign exchange move seamlessly and securely 24/7 across global markets.
Q: Why is tokenizing collateral/collateral management a high-priority use case for institutions?
Mathieson: On traditional financial infrastructure, firms must pre-position collateral in advance to accommodate legacy settlement cycles, market cut-offs and fragmented custody locations. Tokenization removes these limits, enabling collateral to become a dynamic asset. Instead of utilizing collateral only once a day and navigating the operational frictions of moving assets across time zones, tokenized collateral can be mobilized across borders and intra-day. This allows assets to move when and where needed and assets can support multiple transactions over the course of a single day.
With greater collateral velocity, firms can increase trading capacity and generate more revenue with their existing balance sheet. This is not solely about speed and operational efficiencies. Tokenized collateral can have a significant impact on P&L, and this use case is particularly important for traditional firms engaging in crypto markets where trading is 24/7.
Q: Where do you see the biggest barriers to adoption across the industry, and how can they be addressed?
Mathieson: From a technology perspective, regulated entities that want to move their businesses onchain need privacy, compliance and control, and Canton is the network that meets their requirements. More broadly speaking, firms no longer want to experiment with what a tokenized asset is. The technology is proven, and firms are now focused on practicality and the real economic benefit of moving their workflows onchain. The next phase of adoption must advance tokenization use cases that deliver a clear economic value. Additionally, institutions must continue building trading, settlement, and tokenization platforms to scale these transactions into continuous market activity.
Q: What role do partnerships like those with Nasdaq, Vanguard, and Wellington play in building a broader ecosystem?
Mathieson: Through partnerships with market leaders at the forefront of digital asset innovation, we can continue to increase the number of assets onchain, expand market infrastructure, and develop applications and solutions that unlock the full value of onchain assets. These strategic partnerships are critical as we work together to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital finance to create an ‘AllFi’ reality.
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