Combined fundraising by the blockchain projects Ark, Canton and Tempo, which focus on stablecoins and tokenisation, has topped $1 billion.

A recent CoinDesk report said Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan (맷 호건) described this as a sign of rising institutional demand for privacy-focused crypto infrastructure.

Circle recently raised $222 million at a $3 billion valuation to expand the Ark ecosystem. Digital Asset is reported to be raising $300 million at a $2 billion valuation for the Canton blockchain. Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, earlier raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation.

Hougan cited three factors behind the fundraising trend. U.S. regulation has become clearer, demand for private blockchain transactions has risen, and competition among company-backed crypto networks has intensified.

Blockchains have faced the challenge of balancing speed, cost and security. Fast and cheap networks could more easily sacrifice some decentralisation or resilience, while more secure chains could be slower and more costly.

The issue is particularly important for stablecoins and tokenisation. Institutions want transactions to be fast and cheap, while also ensuring privacy, regulatory compliance and security sufficient for use in real-world finance.

Hougan said privacy could emerge as crypto's next killer app as companies and consumers increasingly feel uncomfortable with blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana where all transactions are public. Transparency is a flaw, not a strength, for companies that must disclose all transactions before they are completed, and for workers whose salaries are visible to anyone through a block explorer, he said.