Polkadot has launched a capital markets division aimed at bridging traditional finance and its blockchain ecosystem, underscoring the network’s push to attract institutional players as digital assets gain traction.
Unveiled on Tuesday, Polkadot Capital Group was created in response to rising institutional demand for digital assets and improving regulatory clarity in the United States.
Its mission is to connect traditional finance with Polkadot’s infrastructure, helping institutions explore opportunities in asset management, banking, venture capital, exchanges and over-the-counter trading.
The division will showcase practical use cases in decentralized finance, staking and the fast-growing area of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
According to Polkadot Capital Group lead David Sedacca, the team is already pursuing partnerships with asset managers, brokers and allocators.
While headquartered in the Cayman Islands, the division was also shaped by recent US regulatory progress, including the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin act and the House of Representatives advancing separate bills on crypto market structure and anti-CBDC measures.
Launched in 2020, Polkadot is the 24th-largest blockchain by market capitalization, valued at roughly $6.1 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Its defining feature is a multichain architecture that allows independent blockchains, known as parachains, to connect and interoperate.
Related: Crypto Biz: IPO fever, Ether wars and stablecoin showdowns
Blockchain goes institutional as tokenization, stablecoins gain momentum
Polkadot’s capital markets pivot comes as more blockchain firms realign their strategies to capture institutional demand in areas such as asset tokenization, bond issuance and stablecoin settlement.
In December, tokenized securities company Prometheum raised $20 million to expand efforts to bring traditional securities onchain.
In June, Digital Asset secured $135 million to scale its Canton Network, a blockchain built for regulated financial institutions that has already piloted the tokenization of bonds, gold and other assets.
Meanwhile, Polygon is advancing its capital markets strategy through Obligate, which partnered with Capital Système Investissements to execute a bond issuance on Polygon using USDC (USDC).
Traditional financial institutions have acknowledged blockchain’s potential to cut costs, speed up transactions and reduce friction in banking. As Cointelegraph reported, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon have developed a sandbox for tokenized money market funds with round-the-clock settlement.
Related: TradFi could move onchain due to ‘horrible banking experiences’
