Cardano Foundation spins out Veridian identity unit and tokenizes equity onchain

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.