Abrdn (ABDN), one of the U.K.'s biggest asset-management firms, led a $28.5 million Series A funding round into digital asset exchange Archax, having become the firm's largest external shareholder earlier this year.

The investment into the Financial Conduct Authority-licensed firm included backing from the Tezos Foundation, Bitrock Capital and CE Innovation Capital among others.

Archax allows institutional investors to custody and trade digitized securities – tokenized versions of real-world assets – alongside traditional securities and cryptocurrencies. It says it was the first exchange offering digitized securities to win registration with the FCA and is now working on a range of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs).

Abrdn, which manages 464 billion British pounds ($532 billion) in assets, became Archax's largest external shareholder in August this year after making an undisclosed investment in the exchange.

Read more: UK Investment Giant Abrdn Joins Hedera Governing Council to Advance Tokenization Goals