Cardano Foundation has joined Switzerland’s Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA), bringing its recently launched programmable token standard into an industry group working on standards for regulated securities.
Summary
- Cardano Foundation has joined Switzerland’s Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA).
- CMTA recognized Cardano’s CIP-0113 token standard as technically equivalent to CMTAT for tokenized shares.
- The October 6 recognition covers equity securities but excludes tokenized debt and Cardano’s underlying blockchain infrastructure.
- Cardano has already used CIP-0113 to tokenize shares in Veridian, a company spun out from the Foundation.
- Individual issuers must still meet Swiss legal and certification requirements before receiving CMTA certification.
The Foundation will work with CMTA to advance standards for tokenized capital markets, according to an October 29 announcement. The association confirmed the membership in a separate statement, following its decision this month to recognize Cardano’s CIP-0113 token standard as technically equivalent to its CMTAT framework for tokenized shares.
Meanwhile, the recognition allows companies to use Cardano’s approved smart contract implementation when issuing shares that may qualify for CMTA certification under Swiss law. However, the decision concerns the technical standard and does not automatically certify individual issuers or their securities.
Cardano Foundation gains access to Swiss tokenization standards group
CMTA welcomed the Foundation as its newest member on October 29, following several weeks of technical cooperation between the organizations. The Swiss association works with financial, legal and technology companies to develop standards for issuing and managing securities on blockchain networks.
The latest membership announcement follows a joint decision published on October 7. CMTA’s Expert Committee had approved Cardano’s implementation the previous day, determining that its smart contract contained the functions required under the CMTAT framework for equity securities.
The committee’s decision included specific conditions. Issuers must record their tokenization terms on-chain, represent shares in whole units without fractions, provide the token’s name and ticker, and identify the version of Cardano infrastructure used.
Recognition remains limited to tokenized shares. CMTA explicitly excluded tokenized debt securities and the underlying Cardano blockchain infrastructure from the decision.
CIP-0113 allows Cardano issuers to control token transfers
Cardano launched CIP-0113 on its mainnet on October 7, introducing programmable controls for digital assets issued on the network. The standard supports identity checks, restrictions on transfers, account freezes and other functions that issuers may need when handling regulated financial instruments.
As crypto.news previously reported on the rollout, the framework allows issuers to apply compliance rules to particular tokens without changing how ordinary ADA holdings operate.
Under the CMTA-recognized implementation, approved administrators can maintain lists of eligible holders, block prohibited transactions, suspend transfers and carry out forced transfers when permitted by the applicable rules.
The framework supports supply limits and different administrative roles for managing securities. These controls operate through smart contracts that check transactions before transfers, token issuance or token destruction can proceed.
CMTA’s certification process still requires legal and technical reviews of individual share issuances. Under its published requirements, experts must verify compliance with Swiss corporate law, the effective delivery of tokens to shareholders and the correct deployment of the approved smart contract.
Cardano has already tokenized shares through Veridian
Cardano’s tokenization work has moved beyond the launch of its technical standard. On October 8, the Foundation announced that Veridian, its newly independent digital identity company, had issued shares as ledger-based securities using CIP-0113.
The company became the first publicly identified issuer using the new standard, according to the Foundation’s announcement. Its shares were tokenized under Switzerland’s distributed ledger legislation as part of the company’s separation from the nonprofit organization.
The Foundation’s Veridian spinout announcement identified Thomas A. Mayfield as chief executive and Frederik Gregaard, the Foundation’s CEO, as chair. Veridian plans to seek strategic partners and investors in 2027.
However, neither the October 29 membership announcement nor CMTA’s certification materials establish that Veridian has obtained the association’s Tokenized Shares certification.
The published announcements have not named another company committed to issuing CMTA-certified shares through Cardano’s recognized implementation.
Ethereum and Stellar already have tokenized securities projects
Cardano enters an established market for tokenizing financial instruments. In Switzerland, private bank Cité Gestion received CMTA certification in January 2023 after tokenizing its own shares through Taurus infrastructure using the CMTAT smart contract on Ethereum.
CMTA said the bank’s shares would not be offered publicly, while the tokenized structure provided an electronic record of shareholder ownership and transfers.
Competition extends to Stellar, where Securitize announced plans to integrate its tokenization infrastructure on October 28. The agreement is intended to let institutional clients issue and manage financial assets on Stellar, although no specific asset launch or completion date has been confirmed.
Cardano’s separate development work continued on October 29, when the network announced a developer session featuring Blaster, an automated formal verification tool presented by Romain Soulat and Jean-Frédéric Etienne.
The session focuses on checking whether Cardano smart contracts follow specified rules and identifying code locations where violations occur.
