Cardano Foundation spins out Veridian, tokenizes its shares on CIP-0113
In brief
- Cardano Foundation said it spun out Veridian as an independent, Switzerland-based digital-identity company.
- Veridian's shares were tokenized on Cardano using the new CIP-0113 programmable-token standard.
- Most of Veridian's 1 million shares have been tokenized, CEO Frederik Gregaard said.
- Veridian plans to seek strategic investors in 2027, the foundation said.
What CIP-0113 does
CIP-0113 (short for Cardano Improvement Proposal 0113) lets an issuer attach rules to a token. Those rules can cover who's allowed to receive it and, where required, whether it can be frozen, seized or transferred. According to CoinDesk's report, the features were designed for regulated products such as stablecoins, funds and tokenized securities.
Frederik Gregaard, the foundation's CEO and Veridian's chair, said in an email statement to CoinDesk that Veridian is the first to tokenize its own shares on CIP-0113. He said the company has 1 million shares in total, and most of them have already been tokenized.
“People have talked about tokenized equity for years, and now there’s an operating company on Cardano doing it.”
What Veridian builds
Veridian is based in Switzerland. It's building tools that let governments, businesses and AI agents prove their identity and specify their online activities, and it's led by Thomas A. Mayfield (a blockchain engineer who previously led decentralized trust and identity solutions at the foundation). The company issues digital credentials using open technical standards called KERI and ACDC, which are meant to let people, companies and software agents prove identity or authority without a central database holding that information.
The foundation said Veridian's wallet is live on iOS and Android and that the team has mapped Utah's digital-identity requirements. Utah's SB 275 took effect in May and created the state's State Endorsed Digital Identity Program.
Why spin it out now?
Gregaard pointed to two things: the Utah framework, and the growing need to verify AI agents acting on behalf of people or companies.
That second reason already has a live user.
According to CoinDesk, Masumi (an AI-agent payment and identity network built on Cardano by Serviceplan Group and NMKR) already uses Veridian. The companies said it lets a counterparty verify an agent's credentials before making a payment, and revoke them if the agent's been compromised.
The foundation said Veridian plans to seek strategic investors in 2027. It didn't say how many investors it's looking for or how much it intends to raise.
Frequently asked questions
What is CIP-0113 on Cardano?
CIP-0113, short for Cardano Improvement Proposal 0113, is a programmable-token standard that lets an issuer attach rules to a token. Those rules cover who may receive it and, where required, whether it can be frozen, seized or transferred. It was designed for regulated products such as stablecoins, funds and tokenized securities.
What does Veridian do?
Veridian is a Switzerland-based company building tools for governments, businesses and AI agents to prove their identity and specify their online activities. It issues digital credentials using the open standards KERI and ACDC, which are meant to work without a central database holding the information.
Why did the Cardano Foundation spin out Veridian?
Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard cited Utah's digital-identity framework and the growing need to verify AI agents acting on behalf of people or companies. Masumi, an AI-agent payment and identity network built on Cardano, already uses Veridian.
