Canton Network attracts YZi Labs to power its first trading platform

Canton Network is transitioning from a promising protocol to an active construction site, with YZi Labs doubling down on its ecosystem by funding Temple Digital to build the foundational trading applications required for adoption.

According to a press release dated Oct. 16, YZi Labs has invested in Temple Digital Group, the company behind Canton Network’s first native trading platform. The partnership marks a key milestone for the institutional blockchain initiative, which is being developed alongside major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon.

Founded in 2025, Temple is tasked with creating a privacy-focused trading stack designed to handle tokenized assets and traditional instruments within Canton’s compliant environment. The investment builds on YZi Labs’ earlier commitment to Canton in July, signaling a deliberate move to fund the essential applications that will breathe life into the nascent institutional blockchain.

YZi Labs bets on Temple to close the institutional gap in tokenized markets

Per the announcement, YZi Labs views Temple as the missing execution layer within the Canton ecosystem, the infrastructure that it believes will turn regulatory-grade blockchain architecture into functional trading environments.

“The next step for the ecosystem was execution,” said YZi Labs investment partner Alex Odagiu, noting that Temple’s approach and technical depth address the gap between compliant infrastructure and active market use.

While YZi Labs did not disclose its specific investment amount, Temple Digital Group confirmed in its own announcement that it secured $5 million in a seed round. The round was led by Paper Ventures and saw participation from a syndicate of other venture firms, including CMT Digital, Sfermion, and GSR, alongside YZi Labs.

According to the statement, Temple will use the capital injection to fuel a significant expansion of its engineering and compliance divisions. The funding is earmarked for developing new product lines, including sophisticated asset issuance tools, perpetual futures, and cross-network trade routing capabilities specifically for the Canton ecosystem.

The company also plans to continue foundational research into cryptographic interoperability, exploring ways to connect Canton’s synchronized ledger with other blockchain systems.

YZi Labs claims to manage more than $10 billion in assets. Its portfolio spans more than 300 projects across six continents, with a stated philosophy of prioritizing foundational impact with the expectation that substantial financial returns will follow. Its investments are heavily concentrated in deep-tech sectors, including Web3, AI, and biotech, and it has incubated more than 65 of its portfolio companies.