The Cardano Foundation has established Veridian, its digital identity project, as an independent Swiss company and tokenized a majority of the firm’s one million shares on the Cardano blockchain. The move marks the first real-world deployment of Cardano’s newly introduced CIP-0113 programmable token standard for company equity.

Veridian will operate as a commercial business focused on tools that allow governments, organizations, individuals and AI agents to verify identity and authority without relying on centralized databases. Thomas A. Mayfield, a blockchain engineer who previously led decentralized trust and identity work at the Cardano Foundation, serves as chief executive. Frederik Gregaard, chief executive of the Cardano Foundation, chairs Veridian’s board, and the foundation’s chief legal officer Nicolas Jacquemart has also joined the board.

First Use of CIP-0113 for Tokenized Equity

Most of Veridian’s one million shares have been issued as ledger-based securities under Switzerland’s DLT Act and placed on the Cardano blockchain. The issuance is the first asset deployed under CIP-0113, a programmable token standard developed by the Cardano Foundation and the wider community that went live on mainnet shortly before the spin-out announcement.

CIP-0113 enables issuers to attach specific rules to tokens, including transfer restrictions, freezes and seizures. These controls are designed for regulated products such as stablecoins, funds and tokenized securities, allowing compliance with identity checks, sanctions requirements and legal orders. The framework relies on existing Cardano capabilities and does not require a hard fork. Ordinary ADA and native tokens remain unaffected unless an issuer chooses to apply the rules.

The share tokenization is private and does not involve a public token sale.

Digital Identity Tools and Open Standards

Veridian issues digital credentials using the open technical standards KERI and ACDC. These standards allow users, institutions and software agents to prove identity or authority without storing data in a central registry. The company’s mobile wallet is available on both iOS and Android. Chief technology officer Fergal O’Connor maintains core libraries for the underlying standards.

The platform was originally introduced by the Cardano Foundation as an open-source system in April 2025 after three years of internal development. The spin-out gives the team commercial independence while the two organizations continue to collaborate on integrating verifiable identity with Cardano.

Utah Framework and AI Agent Demand Drive Independence

Veridian has mapped all 142 requirements in Utah’s State-Endorsed Digital Identity implementation guide. Utah became the first U.S. state to enact such legislation under SB 275 in 2026, establishing a privacy-preserving identity program under individual control. More than ten other states are monitoring the model.

Growing demand for authenticating AI agents that act on behalf of businesses and individuals also accelerated the decision to operate Veridian independently. The company’s technology already underpins Masumi, an AI-agent payment and identity network built on Cardano by Serviceplan Group and NMKR. Counterparties can verify an agent’s credentials before authorizing payments and revoke them if the agent is compromised.

Identity fraud cost U.S. consumers an estimated $27.3 billion in 2025, according to figures cited by the foundation, underscoring the need for decentralized alternatives to centralized systems that can expose personal data.

2027 Investor Outreach

Veridian intends to seek strategic partners and investors in 2027. Proceeds would support expansion of its U.S. government business, European enterprise operations, an issuer network in the Asia-Pacific region and further development of tools for verifying the authority of AI agents.

Gregaard said the commercial separation allows Veridian to move at the pace its market requires while remaining aligned with Cardano’s broader identity efforts.