Modular blockchain platform IOST has raised $21 million in a strategic funding round to expand the rollout of its real-world asset (RWA) infrastructure across regulated markets, the company said in a press release on Friday. The round was led by institutional investors DWF Labs, Presto, and Rollman Management Group, the company said. The funding will accelerate IOST’s product development, validator growth, and ecosystem integrations. Tokenization is one of the main use cases of blockchain technology and it is attracting attention and investment from the TradFi world. Initial rollouts will focus on Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region, where IOST is among the few public blockchains approved by the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), the release said. Expansion into the Middle East, Europe, and North America is already underway. “This isn’t just a capital raise. It’s a commitment to building scalable, compliant infrastructure that can power the next generation of tokenized assets,” said IOST CEO Blake Jeong, in the release. The protocol’s architecture includes a high-performance Layer 1 chain, EVM-compatible subnets, and a permissionless deployment model tailored to real-world asset issuance and compliant DeFi. Read more: Plume Launches Genesis Mainnet to Bring Real-World Assets to DeFi