The Gates are Opening: Tessera Unlocks Private Equity for the On-Chain World
Panama City, Panama, March 9th, 2026, Chainwire
Wall Street veteran founder Chan Ahn is closing the “liquidity divide” by bringing institutional private equity to the Solana blockchain.
Tessera today announced the launch of its private equity tokenization platform within the Solana ecosystem. The platform is designed to bring institutional private equity exposure on-chain, aiming to expand access to private company investments that have traditionally remained limited to closed financial networks.
Led by Wall Street veteran and Founder & CEO Chan Ahn, the platform aims to dismantle the “structural divide” of private equity by bringing institutional-grade shares on-chain, offering investors access to high-growth private companies without the years-long lockups of traditional VCs.
The launch marks a major pivot for Ahn, who spent nearly seven years as an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and another four years as Head of Product Development and Cross Asset Structuring at JPMorgan Chase. Most recently, Ahn served as the CTO of ALEX, a leading DeFi protocol on Bitcoin.
The venture 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.
Now, he has set his sights on the $20 billion real-world asset (RWA) market, targeting the “unopened” frontier of private equity, which is traditionally reserved for accredited investors with high minimums.
“Tessera exists to turn private equity from a closed-door market into an open market,” Ahn said. “RWAs are now a measurable DeFi vertical, but the next test is equity risk appetite. If we can make private equity liquid and globally accessible, it fundamentally changes who gets to participate in wealth creation.”
Tessera’s model attempts to wrap these complex TradFi assets into a DeFi-native package. The platform acquires private company shares, holds them in bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), and issues tokens that represent proportional economic exposure. Unlike traditional PE shares, these tokens are designed to trade 24/7 on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) with instant settlement.
The move follows a trend of institutional heavyweights migrating into the RWA space. Tessera is integrating proof mechanisms to ensure that every token on the Solana ledger is backed by a verified underlying reserve. Ahn says this level of auditability was often missing during his years in the “black box” of traditional investment banking.
The timing of the launch comes amid a surge in RWA adoption. Public data shows tokenized RWAs have crossed $20 billion in outstanding value, though the majority of that capital is currently parked in “safe” bets like U.S. Treasuries and money markets.
Tessera’s first assets are expected to include exposure to late-stage private companies that are already household names in the tech and crypto sectors.
“Most investors only get to touch the most valuable companies after the hardest problems are solved and the biggest gains are already priced in,” Ahn said. “We’re moving that timeline forward.”
Tessera is headquartered in Panama City, but its sights are global as it joins a growing list of protocols attempting to bridge the multi-trillion-dollar gap between legacy finance and the 24/7 liquidity of the digital asset market.
About Chan Ahn
Dr. Chan Ahn is the Founder and CEO of Tessera. A Wall Street veteran, Dr. Ahn holds a PhD in Computational Finance from Imperial College London and has led initiatives in financial structuring, derivatives, and structured products at industry leaders including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. As founder, Dr. Ahn focuses on making private equity accessible to a broader audience.
About Tessera
Tessera is a private equity tokenization platform built on Solana. Founded by Chan Ahn, Tessera is designed to bring private equity exposure on-chain through SPV-backed instruments, transparent reserve linkage, and DEX-native liquidity. Tessera is incubated by Tessera Lab, a Singapore-based blockchain technology company. Unlock private equity access at tessera.pe.