Galaxy Digital has made a strategic investment in Digital Prime Technologies, deepening its relationship with the company behind Tokenet, an institutional digital asset lending platform developed with EquiLend. The investment follows Galaxy’s role as a launch participant on Tokenet, which went live in May 2026 and applies securities lending workflows, risk controls and lifecycle management to digital assets. EquiLend announced the investment on June 23.
The deal is important because digital asset lending is still rebuilding institutional trust after the failures of the previous crypto credit cycle. Centralized lenders such as Celsius, BlockFi and Genesis showed that crypto lending could grow quickly without the governance, collateral discipline, transparency and operational infrastructure used in traditional securities finance. Tokenet is designed to close that gap by importing familiar lending workflows into a digital asset market that still lacks common institutional standards.
Galaxy’s investment also fits its own business model. The firm is no longer simply a digital asset trading house. It now combines trading, lending, asset management, venture capital, custody-related services and data center infrastructure. Galaxy’s Q1 2026 materials showed an average loan book of about $1.4 billion and 1,691 trading counterparties, giving the company a clear interest in lending infrastructure that can support institutional scale.
Tokenet Is Trying To Make Crypto Lending Look More Like Securities Finance
The most important part of the announcement is not the investment amount, which was not disclosed. It is the model Tokenet is trying to introduce. In traditional securities lending, the market has long relied on established processes for loan negotiation, collateral management, recalls, lifecycle events, corporate actions, rate changes, mark-to-market, and settlement discipline. Digital asset lending developed more quickly and often without the same shared operating layer, leaving institutions exposed to bilateral process risk, counterparty opacity and inconsistent collateral practices.
Tokenet was built by Digital Prime Technologies in partnership with EquiLend, a company already embedded in the securities finance industry. That matters because EquiLend’s value is not only software. It is distribution into the institutional lending community and familiarity with the operational language that banks, asset managers, custodians and broker-dealers already use. Galaxy’s decision to invest after joining the platform as a launch participant suggests that at least one major digital asset institution sees Tokenet as more than a workflow tool.
| Traditional Securities Lending | Digital Asset Lending Challenge | Tokenet’s Intended Role |
|---|---|---|
| Standardized lifecycle workflows | Fragmented bilateral processes | Common institutional workflow layer |
| Collateral and margin discipline | Inconsistent collateral practices | Risk controls adapted to digital assets |
| Established recall and return process | Operational friction across venues and wallets | Lifecycle management for crypto loans |
| Institutional counterparty networks | Limited transparency after crypto lender failures | Platform-based participation model |
| Operational auditability | Governance gaps in earlier lending models | Transparent process and controls |
Max Bareiss, Head of Lending at Galaxy Digital, said the market needs infrastructure that institutions can trust from the outset. “The maturation of digital asset lending depends on infrastructure that institutions can trust from day one. Tokenet has been built with that bar in mind, and Galaxy’s investment in Digital Prime is a reflection of our confidence in both the platform and the team behind it.”
James Runnels, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Prime Technologies, said the investment validates the company’s attempt to bring digital asset lending closer to traditional market standards. “This investment validates what we set out to build: an institutional-grade platform that closes the gap between digital asset lending and the standards the traditional market already operates by. Having Galaxy as both a live participant and an investor reflects confidence in both the platform and the direction of the market.”
Galaxy’s Investment Comes After Crypto Credit Lost Its Easy Money Model
The timing is important. Digital asset lending was one of the most profitable parts of the previous crypto cycle, but it was also one of the most fragile. Retail-facing yield products, rehypothecation, unsecured or undercollateralized lending, opaque balance sheets and maturity mismatches helped fuel the collapse of several crypto credit platforms. Institutional lenders that survived the cycle have since focused on counterparty controls, legal structure, collateral quality and operational transparency.
That creates an opening for infrastructure companies. Institutions do not only need borrowers and lenders. They need workflows that allow risk teams, legal teams, operations desks and portfolio managers to understand exactly what has been lent, what collateral supports it, how the loan is marked, when it can be recalled and how exceptions are handled. That is why the EquiLend partnership matters. It connects Digital Prime’s crypto-native lending technology with the distribution and process standards of securities finance.
| Old Crypto Lending Model | Institutional Lending Model |
|---|---|
| Yield-led retail deposits | Counterparty-driven institutional lending |
| Opaque balance sheets | Transparent loan and collateral workflows |
| Platform credit risk often unclear | Defined legal and operational process |
| Limited lifecycle standardization | Borrow, return, recall and collateral workflows |
| Growth before governance | Governance before scale |
Nick Delikaris, Chief Product Officer at EquiLend, said Galaxy’s investment supports the view that institutional participants want access to digital asset lending without compromising operational standards. “EquiLend’s partnership with Digital Prime was built on the recognition that institutional participants need a path into digital asset lending that doesn’t require them to compromise on operational standards. Galaxy’s investment in Digital Prime reinforces that the market is moving in that direction.”
The move also comes as institutional crypto infrastructure is broadening beyond exchanges. FinanceFeeds recently reported on Kraken parent Payward’s growing global licensing network, MoonPay’s acquisition of Entendre for AI-enabled finance operations, Broadridge’s digital assets leadership appointment, 24X’s tokenized equities filing, and Coinbase’s launch of pre-IPO perpetual futures. The common theme is that digital assets are moving from speculative venues toward regulated, institutional workflows.
The Bigger Market Is Institutional Collateral, Not Retail Yield
The strategic prize is not a return to the retail yield products that defined 2021. It is institutional collateral mobility. Digital asset funds, market makers, miners, ETFs, prime brokers, custodians and trading firms need ways to borrow and lend crypto assets for short selling, settlement, market making, liquidity management, financing and basis trades. If the market can standardize these workflows, lending could become a more durable piece of digital asset market structure rather than a balance sheet bet hidden inside centralized lenders.
Galaxy’s participation is useful because the firm operates at the intersection of trading, lending and institutional digital asset services. The company reported an average loan book of $1.4 billion in Q1 2026, while its platform supported more than 100 crypto assets and 1,691 trading counterparties. Those figures show why lending infrastructure matters to Galaxy. Better lifecycle tools can reduce operational risk, support more counterparties and allow balance sheet capacity to be used with greater control.
| Galaxy Metric | Reported Figure | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Average loan book | $1.4 billion in Q1 2026 | Shows material exposure to lending activity |
| Trading counterparties | 1,691 | Highlights need for scalable institutional workflows |
| Supported crypto assets | More than 100 | Creates complexity in collateral and lifecycle management |
| Tokenet launch | May 2026 | Early institutional rollout of digital asset lending platform |
Galaxy Digital Lending And Counterparty Scale
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Average loan book | $1.4 billion |
| Trading counterparties | 1,691 |
| Supported crypto assets | 100+ |
Digital Prime said the investment will be used to accelerate Tokenet’s development and expand its institutional client base, while EquiLend’s network will provide the distribution foundation for the platform to scale within the lending community. That combination of crypto-specific technology, institutional distribution and a live participant-investor in Galaxy gives Tokenet a stronger starting point than platforms trying to build both the workflow and the network from scratch.
The risk is that institutional adoption will still depend on more than platform design. Counterparty credit appetite, legal enforceability, custody arrangements, collateral eligibility, bankruptcy treatment and jurisdictional issues remain central to digital asset lending. Tokenet can standardize workflows, but the market still needs firms willing to lend and borrow at scale under legal frameworks they trust.
Takeaway
Galaxy’s investment in Digital Prime Technologies is a bet that the next phase of crypto lending will look less like retail yield and more like institutional securities finance. Tokenet’s goal is to bring standardized workflows, risk controls and lifecycle management to a market still recovering from the failures of the last credit cycle. If institutional digital asset lending grows, the winners may be less visible than exchanges, but more important: platforms that make crypto collateral usable, auditable and scalable inside traditional financial workflows.
