Wall Street Meets Ethereum

A new Ethereum-focused company, co-founded by Ethereum veteran Danny Ryan and ex-Wall Street trader Vivek Raman, has raised $40 million to bridge traditional finance with on-chain infrastructure. The startup is building compliant, privacy-preserving rails designed for banks, asset managers, and broker-dealers who want to transact on Ethereum with the same controls they expect from legacy markets.

The fundraising round was led by Electric Capital and Paradigm, with backing from a group of Ethereum-native investors, underscoring confidence in the project’s vision to bring institutional-grade finance on-chain.

Three Pillars of the Build

The company says it will use the capital to focus on three key areas:

1. Zero-Knowledge (zk) Privacy Infrastructure
   • Enables institutions to trade tokenized assets privately without exposing sensitive positions.
   • Uses zk-proofs so counterparties and auditors can verify settlement integrity while preserving confidentiality.
2. Institutional Settlement Engine
   • Optimized for tokenized fixed income and real-world assets (RWAs).
   • Offers straight-through processing that eliminates reconciliation issues and speeds up post-trade settlement.
3. Liquidity and Utility Applications
   • Building apps that create real liquidity in tokenized assets.
   • Early focus on fixed income products to let buy-side desks source, trade, and manage exposures programmatically.

Leadership describes the raise as fuel to “upgrade the plumbing” of global markets, making Ethereum’s programmable settlement layer ready for institutional-grade volumes.

Why Now?

The move coincides with a surge in institutional interest in Ethereum:

• Asset managers are experimenting with tokenized funds.
• Banks are testing blockchain rails for collateral and settlement.
• Treasuries are evaluating staking-adjacent yields within risk frameworks.

Ryan and Raman say they’ve had hundreds of conversations with Wall Street players, all pointing to the same gaps: confidentiality, deterministic settlement, and workflow compatibility. Their solution aims to plug those gaps, positioning Ethereum as a neutral backbone for compliant finance.

Use of Funds

The $40M raise will be deployed across:

• Hiring cryptography and systems engineers.
• Expanding partnerships with custodians and market operators.
• Running pilots with early institutional clients.
• Operating validator infrastructure to contribute to Ethereum’s security while gathering real-time performance telemetry.
• Publishing technical disclosures and third-party audits to meet institutional procurement standards.

Supporters See Network Effects

Investors argue the key advantage lies in network effects: once compliant privacy and settlement standards exist, new issuers and buy-side desks can plug in without custom builds. This compounding effect could accelerate liquidity across tokenized assets and drive operational efficiencies like:

• Faster post-trade cycles.
• Automated coupon payments.
• Programmable compliance rules.

Risks and Constraints

The company acknowledges hurdles:

• Regulatory scrutiny of privacy features could vary by jurisdiction.
• RWA tokenization depends on off-chain contracts and data feeds staying aligned with on-chain states.
• Market adoption will require proving governance, reliability, and compliance through phased rollouts.

Still, the founders argue these are solvable with rigorous audits, attestations, and regulatory engagement.

Bottom Line

The Ethereum startup’s $40M raise positions it to deliver zk-enabled privacy, compliant settlement engines, and liquidity apps that can pull Wall Street into the Ethereum ecosystem. If executed well, this could mark a major leap in institutional adoption—where banks and asset managers transact on Ethereum with the confidence, confidentiality, and compliance standards of traditional finance.