Institutional Crypto Infrastructure: The Canton Context

Institutional blockchain adoption has moved well beyond proof-of-concepts. Asset managers, banks, and infrastructure operators are actively deploying real-world asset tokenisation and cross-institution settlement workflows. But a critical gap persists: most enterprise-grade networks solve for privacy and compliance at the cost of interoperability, resulting in operational silos that limit their utility at scale.

The question is not about whether institutions will engage with blockchain. It is about the networks that can support regulated capital markets at scale — and which will subsequently be left behind.

In this edition of the Crypto Market Monitor, we examine this question and how Canton Network — backed by Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Franklin Templeton, and over 220 institutional participants — is positioning itself to fill it.

L1s with strong network effects like Ethereum and Solana offer a high degree of transparency and decentralisation. The missing pieces, however, seem to be the lack of native privacy and compliance controls – both of which are non-negotiables for institutional participants.

To fill this gap left by market leaders, a class of blockchain networks designed specifically for regulated stakeholders has emerged. These networks combine onchain interoperability with enterprise governance, permission and privacy controls.  Avalanche’s subnets, for example, allow businesses to create private, permissioned and regulatory-compliant blockchains that still leverage the security and interoperability of the public Avalanche mainnet. Enterprises can create custom virtual machines, tailored gas tokens and high-speed finality. Another example is Hyperledger Fabric which emphasises modular privacy channels and enterprise settlement systems. Meanwhile, ConsenSys Quorum provides Ethereum-compatible permissioned networks for banks and central banks. However, one issue still persists across them – operational silos. They reduce costs but often sacrifice broader interoperability and composability across ecosystems (which is one of the main value adds of chains with strong network effects).

The Canton Network is aiming to fill the above gap. The project positions itself as a network of networks. It offers a public-permissioned Layer 1 blockchain optimised for institutional finance. The chain supports programmable privacy and regulatory-grade controls without silos. For example, unlike Fabric’s channel-based isolation or Quorum’s Ethereum-inherited private transactions, Canton enables selective visibility embedded in smart contracts, allowing regulators real-time access while preventing global broadcasts. This solves the paradox of public chains exposing too much and private ones limiting collaboration.

Its architecture consists of multiple independent networks that operate in parallel but can interoperate atomically and with privacy preservation when needed. This design draws inspiration from the Swiss federal system of cantons (autonomous regions that federate under a shared framework) allowing institutions to maintain control over their own environments while connecting seamlessly for cross-asset transactions. These sub-networks connect through shared synchronisers, such as the decentralised Global Synchroniser (operated by validators), which ensures atomicity. This means that multi-party transactions across sub-networks either fully succeed or fail without partial execution or counterparty risk. Institutions can even run their own private or public synchronisers for added flexibility.

Ecosystem Breadth and Institutional Roles

Today, the Canton ecosystem includes over 220 partners and participants across various categories, including major banks, asset managers, exchanges, custodians, and technology providers. These entities collaborate on tokenisation, settlements, liquidity provision and other workflows, with many serving as validators, app developers, or governance members in the ecosystem. Participants include the likes of Citadel Securities, Paxos, 21Shares, Bank of America, Franklin Templeton, Broadridge, and Versana. The project also has strong backing from marquee names like Galaxy and Founders Fund.

What Institutions Are Doing in the Canton Ecosystem

The depth of institutional participation across multiple layers of the ecosystem signals structural commitment rather than purely exploratory interest. This is a meaningful distinction for allocators assessing Canton’s long-term viability as infrastructure.

Institutions are present at multiple layers of the ecosystem:

• Governance: Members help shape protocol evolution, governance norms, and compliance frameworks under the Canton Foundation, aligning network requirements with regulated market expectations.
• Infrastructure Operation: Banks, exchanges, and service providers operate nodes as validators and super validators, reinforcing network security and coordination.
• Application Deployment: Financial firms are building regulated platforms on Canton, integrating tokenisation engines, onchain settlement pipelines, and cross-institution workflows that would be complex or costly in legacy systems.
• Partnerships with Infrastructure Providers: Collaborations with firms like Chainlink embed oracle services and cross-chain interoperability into the ecosystem while maintaining compliance controls acceptable to institutional users.

Institutional participation affects Canton’s ecosystem in measurable ways. Broad institutional involvement reduces adoption risk by aligning governance, compliance, and operational priorities with regulated market requirements.  The presence of major market participants also encourages third-party service providers to build tooling and services, expanding optionality for institutional clients.

Institutional engagement also supports liquidity and interoperability. While Canton is not a trading venue itself, integrations into trading platforms and the backing of institutional service providers facilitate cross-institution asset flows that emulate settlement processes familiar to financial participants.

These factors reduce friction in capital markets functions such as collateral settlement, repo financing, and tokenised asset transfers. It creates network effects, with network utility growing as more regulated entities participate.

Today’s crypto market reflects a shift from retail-driven speculative boom-and-busts to infrastructure-first participation. Regulatory frameworks in major markets have clarified expectations for custody, settlement and reporting, enabling institutions to engage with blockchain in compliant ways.

The growth of institutional blockchains like Canton indicates a pragmatic trajectory wherein institutions are willing to adopt blockchain where it improves specific workflows without creating legal or operational risks. Within this context, blockchain protocols that align with regulatory expectations and demonstrate meaningful institutional participation find themselves in a defensible position relative to those without similar ecosystem support.

Canton’s architecture directly addresses the silo problem that has constrained every previous generation of institutional blockchain infrastructure. For allocators tracking the maturation of regulated capital markets on-chain, the depth and calibre of its participant network makes it one of the more consequential infrastructure developments to monitor.

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