What is Canton (CC)?

What Is Canton Network?

(Source: CantonNetwork)

Canton Network is a layer-1 blockchain infrastructure engineered for financial markets, leveraging a Proof of Stakeholder consensus mechanism. This approach enables financial institutions to operate their own private sub-ledgers within a unified public framework. They can synchronize data and transact via a shared network.

This architecture allows participants to maintain data independence and privacy while collaborating efficiently on a common foundational layer. For traditional finance, it addresses three core challenges: privacy, compliance, and interoperability.

Three Key Features of Canton

1. Institutional-Grade Infrastructure
   Canton is tailored to meet the rigorous standards of banks, securities exchanges, asset managers, and other major financial institutions, ensuring robust security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. Unlike open public chains, Canton’s architecture offers controlled permissions and data access, allowing participants to transact within a regulatory framework.
2. Privacy with Compliance
   Canton employs an on-demand disclosure model, allowing institutions to preserve transaction confidentiality while selectively sharing specific data with regulators as needed—striking a balance between privacy and compliance. This is vital for financial operations involving sensitive transaction details and user information.
3. Network of Networks
   Canton’s Network of Networks design enables previously siloed financial systems to interoperate on a single foundational layer. Diverse financial products, asset classes, and transaction workflows can move data and value freely within this shared ecosystem, delivering true cross-institutional interoperability.

A New Standard for Real World Asset (RWA) On-Chain Issuance

Canton is driving disruptive innovation in the tokenization of real world assets (RWA), enabling assets to be natively issued on-chain—not simply wrapped as tokens.

For instance, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) can directly issue U.S. Treasury bonds on Canton. This moves beyond traditional tokenization models and grants digital assets native on-chain properties from inception. This enhances transparency and security in transactions, minimizes intermediary risks, and offers financial institutions a reliable gateway to blockchain-based capital markets.

Primary Use Cases for Canton

Canton Network is designed to support a wide range of financial scenarios, enabling efficient on-chain trading and settlement:

1. Payments and Settlement
   Enables real-time, automated payment processing—ideal for cross-border transactions, corporate treasury management, and B2B settlement. With high throughput and low latency, businesses achieve 24/7 liquidity.
2. Asset Tokenization
   Financial institutions can issue and trade tokenized assets—such as U.S. Treasuries, European corporate bonds, and gold—directly on Canton. These on-chain assets increase market transparency and trading efficiency.
3. Lending and Settlement
   Canton supports on-chain repo agreements and pilot margin management transactions. This facilitates efficient capital movement between blockchain and traditional systems, and it also enhances liquidity and traceability.

Backed by Financial Giants and Expanding Ecosystem

Digital Asset, Canton Network’s developer, has recently secured $135 million in strategic funding led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Citadel Securities, DTCC, Virtu Financial, Paxos, and other leading institutions from both traditional and crypto finance.

As of the latest report, the scale of tokenized assets on Canton has surpassed $6 trillion. The network processes more than $280 billion in U.S. Treasury repo transactions daily, underscoring its institutional adoption. Looking ahead, Canton aims to build a global, on-chain capital market that operates 24/7—unbound by time zones or geography—delivering truly integrated digital finance.

Tokenomics

Canton Network’s economic model centers on its native token, Canton Coin (CC), with a dual incentive mechanism of burning and minting—balancing scarcity with long-term growth.

Token Utility

Canton Coin powers the network, used for transaction ordering, validator service fees, and system operating costs. Every transaction fee is automatically burned after payment, reducing total supply and establishing a deflationary model. Meanwhile, new CC is minted dynamically to reward three key participant groups, sustaining growth across the ecosystem.

Reward Distribution Model

• Application Developers (50%): Half of all rewards go to application builders, incentivizing more institutions and developer teams to innovate on Canton.
• Infrastructure Providers (35%): Validators and node operators—such as professional service providers like P2P.org—uphold network security and performance. Super validators earn higher rewards, further advancing decentralization and stability.
• Network Users (15%): End users conducting transactions and activities on the network earn rewards proportional to their activity—creating an activity-based rewards model.

This reward structure sustains both development and infrastructure, and also makes users contributors to the network’s value cycle.

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Conclusion

Canton is more than a bridge for traditional finance to enter blockchain—it is the foundational infrastructure for the digital transformation of global capital markets. It enables banks, exchanges, and asset managers to balance compliance and privacy, while on-chain collaboration brings unprecedented efficiency and transparency. As institutional blockchain adoption accelerates, Canton is setting a new benchmark for the global financial system through real-world applications and strategic partnerships. In the future, capital markets may operate without fixed business hours or geographic limitations—powered by Canton Network.