RWA network Pharos lands a $1 billion valuation in $44M funding round ahead of mainnet debut

Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email RWA network Pharos lands a $1 billion valuation in $44M funding round ahead of mainnet debut The company is building an "asset-native" network designed to handle regulated financial activity at scale, targeting a market it values at $50 trillion. By Francisco Rodrigues | Edited by Jamie Crawley Apr 8, 2026, 2:40 p.m. Make preferred on (Dmytro Glazunov/Unsplash) What to know : Pharos Network, a layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets, raised $44 million in a Series A round led by traditional finance and crypto investors including Sumitomo Corporation and Chainlink. The company is building an "asset-native" network designed to handle regulated financial activity at scale, targeting a market it values at $50 trillion. Pharos has partnerships with energy firms for solar-backed assets and claims millions of users on its testnet, with a mainnet launch expected in the near future. Pharos Network, a layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets, said it raised $44 million in a Series A round led by a mix of traditional finance and crypto investors. Backers include Sumitomo Corporation’s venture arm, SNZ Holding, Chainlink and Flow Traders, along with unnamed financial institutions the firm described as “giants in global finance.” The funding comes as interest grows in bringing assets like bonds, energy projects and private credit onto blockchain rails. Pharos says it is building an “asset-native” network designed to handle regulated financial activity at scale. Its system uses parallel processing to support large volumes of transactions, with compliance features aimed at institutions that need audit trails and identity checks. The company targets a market it values at $50 trillion. While far from that figure, the tokenization space has been growing, with data showing total real-world assets onchain are now at $24.3 billion. That’s up from $14 billion at the beginning of the year. Pharos also pointed to activity on its testnet, which it said includes millions of users and unique addresses, and a partnership with energy firm GCL tied to solar-backed assets. These figures, common in pre-launch networks, are often driven by incentives and are hard to verify independently. The raise follows an earlier seed round where the firm raised $8 million. That round was co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC. It also comes after a recent investment from GCL New Energy (0451) that valued the firm near $1 billion. Its mainnet is expected to debut in the near future. Tokenization Funding Rounds Mehr für Sie Encryption Supremacy: Zcash and Privacy in the Age of Scale Von CoinDesk Research 31. März 2026 Commissioned by GenZcash Most crypto privacy models weaken as blockchain data grows. Encryption-based models like Zcash strengthen. CoinDesk Research maps the five privacy approaches and examines the widening gap. Warum es wichtig ist : As blockchain adoption scales, the metadata available to machine learning models scales with it. Obfuscation-based privacy approaches are structurally degrading as a result. This report provides a comprehensive comparison of all five major crypto privacy architectures and a framework for evaluating which models remain durable as AI capabilities improve. View Full Report More For You Saylor’s solo act: JPMorgan says Strategy is practically the only thing keeping crypto flows alive By Will Canny , AI Boost | Edited by Jamie Crawley 57 minutes ago Digital asset inflows totaled $11 billion in Q1, as institutional demand and ETF outflows left corporate buyers and venture capital as the primary sources of funding. What to know : JPMorgan estimated Q1 digital asset inflows at ~$11 billion, a sharp slowdown from 2025 levels. Investor demand weakened, with softer CME futures positioning and ETF outflows early in the quarter. Flows were driven mainly by Strategy purchases and concentrated VC funding, according to the report. 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