A16z Leads Investors in $20 Million Token Presale for Crypto Assets Platform

Asset tokenization platform TrustToken just raised $20 million in a strategic token sale with the help of major venture corporations, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

The startup announced Monday that the cash raised in the funding effort, which was also backed by BlockTower Capital and Danhua Capital, will be used to continue developing its platform, which seeks to list different tokens backed by physical assets, according to a press release.

TrustToken has so far released one such token already – a "stablecoin" called TrueUSD, according to the release.

In a statement, TrustToken chief executive Danny An said:

"The support of these leading investment firms represents a significant step towards our goal to build a compliant tokenization platform for currencies, commodities, and real-world assets. We will draw on the combined expertise and network of these firms as we grow our industry partnerships and extend the reach of our first product, TrueUSD."

The funds will also help TrustToken expand its legal, product and engineering departments, according to the release.

Ari Paul, managing partner at BlockTower, spoke to the potential of blockchain technology and the reasons for the investment in a statement, saying that "tokenization of real-world assets will produce value much in the same way that 'equitization' did."

"We can now buy fractional ownership in a basket of commercial office buildings or commodities via equity instruments," he continued. "Tokenization will further reduce friction in asset trading and ownership."

U.S. dollars image via Shutterstock