A New Independent Identity Company

The Cardano Foundation has spun out Veridian, its digital identity project, as an independent Swiss company. On October 8, 2026, at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, the foundation confirmed Veridian will operate as an independent commercial company. Veridian spent three years in development inside the Cardano Foundation before getting its own corporate identity. Thomas A. Mayfield takes the CEO role, having previously served as the foundation's head of decentralized trust and identity. The foundation is not walking away entirely. Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, chairs Veridian's board, and Nicolas Jacquemart, identified as chief legal officer, also sits on the board.

Based in Switzerland, Veridian will build identity tools for governments, businesses, and AI agents. Veridian develops digital credentials based on open KERI and ACDC standards, enabling individuals, enterprises, and AI agents to verify identity and permissions without a central database. Led by Mayfield, the project has already released a mobile wallet for iOS and Android that is integrated with Utah's digital identity regulations.

First Equity on Cardano's New CIP-0113 Standard

Veridian's own shares became the first asset issued under Cardano's new CIP-0113 programmable token standard, which went live on mainnet only a day earlier. "Veridian is the first to tokenize its own shares on the new CIP-0113 that we announced yesterday," Gregaard told CoinDesk. The company has 1 million shares in total, most of which have been tokenized. The tokenized shares are not being offered to the public.

Veridian's shares were formally issued on the Cardano blockchain as ledger-based securities under Switzerland's DLT regulations. The proposal defines programmable tokens as assets that require a script to execute successfully before ownership can change. CIP-0113 addresses the need for allowlists, denylists, customer checks and other compliance rules that tokenized securities may require, adding those controls using existing Cardano primitives rather than a hard fork.

Separately, the Cardano Foundation and the Swiss Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA) announced that CIP-0113 has been recognized as equivalent to the CMTAT smart contract for the purposes of the CMTA certification scheme. Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard, who also serves as Veridian chairman, stated the company plans to seek strategic investors in 2027.

Sources:
Crypto Briefing: Cardano Foundation Spins Out Veridian as Independent Digital Identity Company
DeFi Prime: Cardano Foundation Spins Out Veridian With Tokenized Shares