Symbiont, a New York City-based blockchain firm aiming to implement the new technology in traditional capital markets, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round.

The Series B funding round was led by the fintech investment arm of NASDAQ, Nasdaq Ventures, Citigroup Inc., Raptor Group Holdings, and the Mike Novogratz-led Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.

According to Symbiont’s website, the firm specializes in “Smart Securities” technology that allows “complex financial instruments to live out their entire lifecycle on a decentralized network with a single source of truth.”

The platform uses smart contracts to dictate how different financial instruments will behave, while blockchain technology hastens the settlement process. Currently, banks do this manually which is time-consuming and wasteful. This is just one of the many ways that blockchain can be applied to traditional markets and financial instruments and improve efficiency and reduce cost.

Among the ways Symbiont plans to spend the $20 million, is to use it to fund further development of blockchain-based solutions for loans, mortgages, and private equity.

Symbiont CEO Mark Smith explained that the blockchain “hype cycle” has finally died down, and that the next phase is the “trough of disillusionment.” “Especially for people who inappropriately applied this technology hoping it would become a panacea for solving all their problems,” he added.

“We are entering a much more realistic phase where people look at this technology and think seriously about where it makes sense to apply it and where it doesn’t,” Smith said.

Like the internet before it, businesses across the globe are scrambling to understand this new, emerging technology called blockchain, and are hoping to apply it to everything from finance, to supply chain management, and more. Symbiont may be the first to bridge traditional markets with blockchain in an effective way, and has the support of some major players in the financial space.