A new platform founded by Wall Street veteran Chan Ahn is aiming to bring one of finance’s most exclusive asset classes — private equity — onto the blockchain.
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Tessera has announced the launch of its private equity tokenization platform on Solana, a system designed to give investors onchain exposure to private company shares that have historically been accessible only through venture capital firms and institutional investment networks.
The goal is ambitious: convert private equity from a closed financial market into a liquid, globally accessible asset class.
“Private equity has historically operated inside closed networks,” said Chan Ahn, Founder and CEO of Tessera. “If we can make it liquid and globally accessible, it fundamentally changes who gets to participate in wealth creation.”
A Wall Street Background Meets DeFi
Ahn brings a traditional finance pedigree rarely seen among Web3 founders.
Before launching Tessera, he spent nearly seven years as an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and another four years at JPMorgan Chase, where he served as Head of Product Development and Cross-Asset Structuring. Most recently, Ahn worked as CTO of ALEX, a DeFi protocol built on Bitcoin.
His experience inside large financial institutions helped shape the thesis behind Tessera: many of the most valuable private companies remain inaccessible to the broader market until after their largest growth phase has already passed.
“Most investors only get to participate after the biggest gains are already priced in,” Ahn said. “We’re trying to move that timeline forward.”
How Tessera’s Model Works
Tessera’s platform converts private company shares into tokenized assets on Solana through a legal and technical structure designed to mirror traditional financial ownership.
The process works in three steps:
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Tessera acquires private company shares.
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The assets are held inside bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs).
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Tokens are issued on Solana representing proportional economic exposure to those underlying shares.
These tokens are designed to function like DeFi-native assets, meaning they can theoretically trade 24/7 on decentralized exchanges with instant settlement, a stark contrast to traditional private equity structures that typically lock capital for years.
To maintain transparency, Tessera is integrating onchain proof mechanisms that verify each token is backed by the underlying equity reserve.
Ahn says this level of transparency was often absent in traditional financial markets.
“In many ways, private equity is still a black box,” he said. “Blockchain infrastructure allows those reserves and ownership structures to become auditable.”
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Entering the Real-World Asset Boom
The launch comes at a time when tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in crypto.
Public data shows the RWA market has now surpassed $20 billion in tokenized value, though most of that capital currently sits in lower-risk instruments such as tokenized U.S. Treasuries and money market funds.
Tessera is betting that the next major phase of RWA adoption will move further up the risk curve into equity exposure, particularly in late-stage private companies.
The platform’s first assets are expected to include shares in well-known technology and crypto companies, offering investors access before those firms reach public markets.
Bridging TradFi and DeFi
Tessera is backed by Tessera Lab, whose ecosystem traces back to the ALEX Lab DeFi project, which previously attracted investors including White Star Capital, Cultur3 Capital, GBIC, OKX Ventures, and Trust Machines.
The company is headquartered in Panama City, but its ambitions are global.
The broader opportunity is significant. Private equity represents a multi-trillion-dollar market, yet participation is typically limited to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals due to high minimum investments and long lockup periods.
Tokenization could potentially lower those barriers.
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If platforms like Tessera succeed, the structure of private markets could shift toward something closer to public equities — but with the speed and accessibility of blockchain settlement.
For Ahn, the vision is straightforward.
“RWAs are already becoming a measurable DeFi sector,” he said. “The next frontier is bringing equity markets onchain.”