Pantera Capital-backed startup Fission raises $10 million to help investors cash out of tokenized funds faster

Money can move into tokenized private funds much faster than it comes out.

Even as asset managers use blockchain technology to turn fund shares into digital tokens, a lack of liquidity can mean investors must wait months to find a buyer.

Fission, a New York-based startup, is building a system designed to let investors skip that wait and sell their tokenized fund shares in seconds.

On Thursday, the startup, founded in 2024 by CEO Jonathan Shaffer, CRO Steve Bendit, and CTO Chris Humphrey, announced a $10 million Series A to address the liquidity problem.

Pantera Capital led the round, which closed in September, with participation from Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital, and Ari Rubenstein.

Fission declined to disclose its valuation.

Although tokenization has helped investors skip cumbersome paperwork to invest in funds from major managers such as BlackRock , Apollo or Janus Henderson, it doesn’t guarantee that they will find buyers when they want to sell their holdings.

Fission’s approach is to act as the buyer, allowing investors to sell through its platform rather than wait for the fund to process a withdrawal.

Investors connect their digital wallets and submit a sale, while Fission handles the legal and trading mechanics behind the scenes.

“It would take you normally about 200 days to sell [a] product.

For a fee, you can sell it right now and get your money back, and this will settle… in 90 seconds or less,” Shaffer told Fortune .

The missing exit Tokenization has gained traction on Wall Street as asset managers put fund shares and investment products on digital ledgers.

BlackRock expanded its lineup in August with two tokenized money market products, while JPMorgan’s asset management arm has also stepped up its efforts, launching its second tokenized money market fund for U.S. investors in May.

This recent push also extends to brokerage distribution: Pittsburgh-based investment manager Federated Hermes announced a partnership with Prometheum this month to offer tokenized funds through brokerages, with the first product expected in early 2027.