Superstate, a tokenization startup led by decentralized finance pioneer Robert Leshner, has raised $82.5 million to further bring Wall Street to blockchain.
The investment round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global, with participation from Galaxy Digital, Haun Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.
The startup aims to build a regulated blockchain-based capital markets infrastructure that runs faster and costs less than the legacy systems it seeks to replace.
With the new funding, Superstate plans to expand its tools to help companies raise capital and execute shareholder processes on public blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana. The company says it currently manages over $1.2 billion in tokenized assets.
The investment comes as tokenization gains momentum across the investment world, with banks and asset managers around the world looking to convert traditional financial assets such as bonds, stocks and funds into blockchain-based tokens. This is done to enable cheaper and faster transactions, 24-hour settlement, and improve transparency. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $14 trillion in assets under management, recently named tokenized assets as one of its biggest investment themes this year.
It’s also a potentially huge market opportunity. Predictions from global companies such as McKinsey and BCG estimate that the tokenized asset market will grow to trillions of dollars over the next decade.
Superstate is one of several companies trying to turn that potential into functioning infrastructure. Through its Opening Bell platform, the company helps SEC-registered companies issue digital stock directly to investors, bypassing traditional intermediaries. It also acts as a transfer agent, recording ownership changes on-chain in real-time.
In practice, this could mean a future where companies conduct IPOs by issuing shares directly on blockchain rails such as Ethereum or Solana, where transactions settle instantly and investor records are updated automatically. This is in sharp contrast to current systems where record-keeping is fragmented and transactions take days to complete.
“Tokenization will drive capital market transformation this year,” said Robert Leshner, CEO of Superstate and co-founder of Compound, one of the first decentralized finance companies.
