If you’ve been following the intersection of traditional finance and crypto, EquiLend is making a strategic play.
The securities finance giant, with $40 trillion in lendable assets, just announced a minority investment in Digital Prime Technologies, a regulated crypto financing provider. The goal? Bridge traditional finance with tokenized markets, without leaving their core TradFi clients behind.
Here’s what’s happening:
- Tokenet at the Center: The partnership focuses on Digital Prime’s Tokenet network, an institutional lending platform that supports multi-custodian, multi-collateral lifecycle management, exposure monitoring, and detailed institutional reporting.
- Next-Level Collateral: Future updates plan to introduce regulated stablecoin collateral and additional tokenized instruments, letting traditional workflows run straight through digital and tokenized assets.
- Strategic Timing: CEO Rich Grossi emphasized that the move is about market readiness, not a pivot. EquiLend wants to be prepared as tokenized assets and digital instruments mature while maintaining transparency, governance, and scale across all asset classes.
TradFi meets DeFi → on Canton.
— Canton Network (@CantonNetwork) December 18, 2025
With $6T+ in on-chain assets, $350B in daily repo, and 616 validators, Canton has become a thriving ecosystem.
And this ecosystem of apps, assets, and infrastructure is expanding fast.
Let's explore.👇 pic.twitter.com/235i8ZJ3dx
Why it matters:
EquiLend is spotting a familiar pattern. Crypto lending faces the same operational headaches TradFi solved decades ago: fragmented workflows, limited collateral mobility, and inconsistent post-trade processes. CPO Nick Delikaris points out that Tokenet addresses these exact pain points for institutions venturing into digital assets.
Grossi also highlights that the timing aligns with pro-crypto regulatory momentum in the U.S., creating a bridge between traditional market infrastructure and emerging digital asset rules. In short, EquiLend sees regulatory clarity as a signal to invest.
The bottom line: EquiLend isn’t abandoning traditional finance. Instead, it’s building a bridge that connects $40 trillion in lendable assets to the growing tokenized market, giving institutions a governed, transparent, and scalable way to manage both traditional and digital instruments.
This isn’t just a crypto bet, it’s institutional finance meeting the future of tokenized markets.
