Cardano Foundation spins out Veridian, tokenizes its shares on new standard
Veridian became the first company to use Cardano’s new programmable-token standard for its equity, though the tokenized shares are not being offered to the public.
The Cardano Foundation spun out Veridian, its digital-identity project, as an independent company and tokenized its shares on the Cardano blockchain using the network’s new programmable-token standard.
Veridian, based in Switzerland, will build tools for governments, businesses and AI agents to prove their identity and specify their online activities. The company is led by Thomas A. Mayfield, a blockchain engineer who previously led decentralized trust and identity solutions at the Cardano Foundation. Veridian plans to seek strategic investors in 2027, the foundation said Thursday.
“Veridian is the first to tokenize its own shares on the new CIP-0113 that we announced yesterday,” Frederik Gregaard, the Cardano Foundation’s CEO and Veridian’s chair, told CoinDesk in an email statement.
The company has 1 million shares in total, he said, most of which have been tokenized. “People have talked about tokenized equity for years, and now there’s an operating company on Cardano doing it.”
The move gives Cardano its first live example of the programmable-token framework it introduced on Tuesday. CIP-0113, short for Cardano Improvement Proposal 0113, lets an issuer attach rules to a token, including who may receive it and, where required, whether it can be frozen, seized or transferred.
Those features are designed for regulated products such as stablecoins, funds and tokenized securities, whose issuers may need to enforce identity checks, sanctions controls or court orders whenever an asset changes hands. Veridian’s shares give the standard an equity use case, rather than a theoretical one.
Veridian uses open technical standards known as KERI and ACDC to issue digital credentials. The credentials are meant to let people, companies and software agents prove their identity or authority without a central database holding the information.
The Cardano Foundation said Veridian’s wallet is live on iOS and Android and that it has mapped Utah’s digital-identity requirements. Utah’s SB 275, which took effect in May, created the state’s State Endorsed Digital Identity Program.
Gregaard said the Utah framework and the growing need to verify AI agents acting on behalf of people or companies created a reason to separate Veridian from the nonprofit foundation.
Masumi, an AI-agent payment and identity network built on Cardano by Serviceplan Group and NMKR, already uses Veridian. The companies say it allows a counterparty to verify an agent’s credentials before making a payment and to revoke them if the agent is compromised.
“AI agents will need verifiable identity too,” he said. “Veridian can serve that market better as its own company.”
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Cardano Foundation's spinout of Veridian as a test case for tokenized equity signals maturation of on-chain corporate infrastructure—moving beyond speculation into practical securities use. The adoption of a new programmable-token standard suggests Cardano is positioning itself as infrastructure for regulated digital assets, competing with Ethereum's ERC-20 dominance in this emerging category. However, the private share offering (not public) indicates regulatory caution; tokenization of equity remains legally ambiguous across most jurisdictions, requiring accredited investor frameworks or exemptions.
This move mirrors broader industry efforts to bridge TradFi and DeFi through programmable securities (see Ripple's work with issued currencies, Sui's Move-based tokens). Success hinges on adoption by other enterprises and regulatory clarity—a private trial provides low-risk optionality. The narrative value is significant: it reframes Cardano from payments-focused to securities infrastructure, potentially attracting institutional interest. Counterpoint: tokenized equity has seen limited real-world traction due to custody complexity, settlement finality concerns, and regulatory friction. Veridian's viability as a proof-of-concept will be measured by whether secondary markets emerge and if lock-up periods create meaningful liquidity events.