Canton-based trading platform Cancore raises $7.2 million at $60 million token valuation

Cancore, a Canton-based trading platform connecting assets on the network with liquidity on public blockchains, has raised $7.2 million in seed funding.

Paper Ventures, dao5, ArkStream Capital, X Ventures, MH Ventures and Proof of Talk backed the round. There was no formal lead investor, though Paper Ventures and dao5 took the largest allocations, Cancore co-founder and CEO Wasif Rashid told The Block.

The round was raised at a $60 million fully diluted token valuation through simple agreements for future tokens, or SAFTs, for Cancore's planned CNRX token, Rashid said.

Rashid said Cancore started talking to investors in June, formally began raising in July, and closed the round in mid-September.

How Cancore works

Cancore describes its platform as a "Liquidity OS for tokenized finance." Rashid said the aim is to connect assets on Canton, including tokenized real-world assets, with stablecoins and DeFi liquidity elsewhere.

"Tokenization puts financial assets onchain. Programmability takes this further, allowing assets to be traded, managed, and settled automatically based on predefined rules, without requiring manual intervention," he said.

Cancore has been live on Canton mainnet since April. Its products include Cancore Trade for trading across networks and Cancore Wallet, where users keep control of their keys, Rashid said.

Users can trade across Canton, Ethereum, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Robinhood Chain and Tron. Cancore plans to add Base and Solana, with Solana coming after an external security audit, Rashid said, adding that the platform also plans to bring more tokenized assets onto Canton.

Since going live in April, Cancore has processed over $86 million across more than 160,000 trades, Rashid said, noting that revenue over that period was more than $700,000.

Rashid said Cancore charges a 0.5% fee on each side of a trade and adds 10% to Canton network fees. It also takes 20% of profits from liquidity pools, with the remaining 80% going to liquidity providers.

"Either the trade completes on both chains, or both parties are refunded," he said. Rashid added that users can trade without giving up control of their assets, using wrapped tokens or relying on separate bridge validators.

Rashid named LayerZero, Wormhole, Squid and Canton-based decentralized exchanges as competitors. He said Cancore differs by offering trading, settlement and AI automation together.

Cancore also runs a validator on Canton. Rashid said it has locked 5 million CC tokens under CIP-0116.

Token plans

Cancore plans to launch its CNRX token, but Rashid did not give an estimated timeline. He said users who stake the token will get lower trading fees and higher limits for trading and AI tools. Liquidity providers will also receive token benefits.

Rashid previously co-founded blockchain security firm BlockApex, which he said completed more than 125 audits and helped secure over $3.2 billion in assets.

Cancore was founded in late 2025 and has 10 employees, mainly based in the UAE and Pakistan, Rashid said. It plans to hire more people for engineering, security, AI infrastructure and institutional business development.

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