The Cardano Foundation has launched Veridian, its digital identity spin-out, and tokenised shares in the new company on Cardano ($ADA). The announcement, made by @Cardano_CF on October 8, makes Veridian an independent commercial business and the first to use the network's programmable token standard, CIP-0113.
What Veridian does
Veridian will operate as an independent business led by Thomas A. Mayfield, providing tools for governments, organisations and individuals to verify identity and authority in digital interactions without a central identity database, according to crypto.news. The project had been in development for three years before the spin-out. Veridian is based in Switzerland and targets governments, businesses and AI agents, CoinDesk reported.
The company's mobile wallet is already live. CoinDesk reported that Veridian develops credentials that help people, businesses and AI agents verify identities and authority. According to crypto.news, the company says it has mapped all 142 requirements in Utah's state-endorsed digital identity implementation guide, and it plans to seek strategic partners and investors in 2027, including for expansion in the United States.
How the shares were tokenised
Veridian's shares have been issued as ledger-based securities under Switzerland's DLT Act, crypto.news reported. The Foundation describes them as the first asset deployed on Cardano using CIP-0113.
Frederik Gregaard, the Cardano Foundation's CEO and Veridian's chair, told CoinDesk that most of the company's 1 million shares have been tokenised. CoinDesk noted that the tokenised shares are not being offered to the public.
CIP-0113 went live on Cardano mainnet on October 7, one day before the spin-out. CoinMarketCap Academy reported that the Foundation said the standard went live after multiple independent security audits. It lets issuers of stablecoins, tokenised funds and bonds build compliance controls into tokens, including KYC checks, sanctions screening, transfer limits and freeze-and-seize functions. CoinDesk said these features are designed to help issuers meet regulatory requirements.
Mainnet availability does not by itself show adoption. As TradingView News noted, the standard's relevance to $ADA depends on issuers choosing to build with it. Veridian is the first live example, but it is a Foundation-linked company, and its shares are not publicly tradable.
Sources:
CoinDesk: Cardano Foundation spins out Veridian, tokenizes its shares on new standard
crypto.news: Cardano Foundation spins out digital identity firm Veridian
CoinMarketCap Academy: Cardano rolls out token standard letting issuers freeze, seize assets