Marex backs Digital Prime to expand institutional crypto lending

Marex Group has made an undisclosed investment in Digital Prime Technologies to support the development of Tokenet, a digital-asset lending and borrowing platform built by Digital Prime in partnership with EquiLend. The companies announced the investment on Wednesday.

Tokenet connects institutional lenders and borrowers of digital assets, allowing financial firms to place assets for lending or register borrowing interest through structured arrangements with partner institutions. Digital Prime reported last week that Tokenet had surpassed $1 billion in lending inventory and more than $1 billion in borrowing demand from its launch partners.

Those figures refer to the amount of digital assets available to lend via the platform and the volume of borrowing interest registered by participating institutions, not completed loan transactions. Launch partners named by Digital Prime include Galaxy Digital and Ripple Prime.

Marex, listed on Nasdaq, described the investment as part of its plan to expand its institutional digital assets business and to scale services and infrastructure for institutional clients seeking regulated channels for crypto financing and related products. Marex did not disclose the size of its investment.

Digital Prime developed Tokenet with EquiLend, a provider of post-trade infrastructure for securities lending. The partnership combines Digital Prime’s institutional crypto platform with EquiLend’s experience in connecting institutional lenders and borrowers, with the intent of applying securities-lending mechanics to digital assets.

Other large financial institutions, including Barclays, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo, have recently made targeted investments in areas of crypto infrastructure such as stablecoin services and tokenized deposits. The announcement from Marex and Digital Prime outlines another example of financial firms funding platforms that support lending and borrowing for institutional digital-asset clients.