Canton Co-Founder Yuval Rooz: Native Assets Beat Wrapped Tokens for Institutions

The crypto market is shifting from retail speculation to institutional adoption, driven by ETFs, RWA, stablecoins, and tokenized stocks. Canton Network has positioned itself as critical infrastructure for this transition, backed by YZi Labs and partnering with Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and Microsoft.

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset (Canton's parent company), explained the key differentiator at Korea Blockchain Week: "Canton's vision is to bring assets natively on-chain, rather than wrapping assets. Holding the relevant token is equivalent to holding that security in traditional markets." Unlike projects that tokenize representations of real-world assets, Canton makes the on-chain token itself the actual security, eliminating wrapped intermediaries.

Canton's architecture addresses institutional requirements that persist despite regulatory improvements. "For institutions, just because they can now conduct digital asset business doesn't mean they stop caring about privacy or custody and protection of user assets," Rooz noted. He believes Canton's advantage lies in combining regulatory favorability, growing client interest, and a chain meeting institutional privacy and regulatory requirements. This convergence creates powerful momentum for on-chain finance's future development.

Q1: Hey Yuval, thanks for attending this talk. OK so first of all, would you please introduce Canton and yourself?

Yuval: I'm Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, the team behind Canton Network. My background is in electrical engineering. I began my career as a quant at Citadel, then moved to DRW Trading where I worked on high-frequency trading. Later, I helped establish Cumberland Mining, the largest OTC crypto market maker globally. I now lead Digital Asset, the company driving Canton’s development.

Our team blends diverse experiences from traditional finance and technology. My co-founder, who created Cumberland Mining, has been a market maker since 2012, and another co-founder was pivotal in developing zero-knowledge proofs. Our CTO has a PhD in distributed systems. Our varied backgrounds, especially in traditional finance, position us uniquely to bridge institutions into the crypto space, making Canton the ideal platform for those looking to onboard traditional assets on-chain.

Q2: If you had to describe what Canton is doing in just one or two sentences, how would you put it?

Yuval: Canton is focused on rewiring the global financial system. We are bringing institutions on-chain and enabling real financial activity on the blockchain. Our customers are major players in today’s financial markets.

Q3: So from what we know, Canton started taking shape around 2023, right when RWA was already getting pretty hot. Now we're seeing RWA hype all over again. What's different this time around? How do these two waves compare? And while we're at it, can you walk us through the major milestones Canton has hit over the past few years?

Yuval: Canton was launched in 2023, but our whitepaper dates back to 2015. We’ve focused on building something sustainable and impactful, not just another hype project. Major milestones include partnerships with Chainlink, multiple wallets and stablecoins coming to Canton, and integrations with DEXs. Today, Canton ranks as the fifth largest chain by on-chain activity, all before our official listing. Our goal is to bring real-world assets on-chain, allowing for robust, decentralized applications.

Q4: Canton really focuses on helping traditional institutions go on chain. What makes you different from other RWA projects out there like Ondo or Plume? What's the core difference in what you're building?

Yuval: Canton’s vision is to enable native asset tokenization on the blockchain, rather than relying on wrapped assets. While wrapped assets are an advancement, they aren’t as compelling to us.

Canton is focused on native asset tokenization, including U.S. Treasuries, U.S. stocks, Chinese stocks, Japanese stocks, and more. Holding the relevant tokens is equivalent to holding the corresponding securities in traditional markets. I believe the way we’ve designed our blockchain is uniquely suited to achieve this, something others find difficult to replicate.

At the same time, we know that many large institutions are highly concerned with “privacy” rather than “anonymity.” We believe that many existing blockchains lean more toward being “anonymous chains” rather than true “privacy chains.” Canton can ensure privacy while maintaining compliance, which is critical for institutions that prioritize both privacy and regulatory adherence.

You just mentioned the core difference between native assets and wrapped assets. What are the specific advantages of native assets? Why does that matter?

Yuval: Let me give you an example: Imagine you hold a security, and the issuer distributes dividends. Legally, you have a direct claim to those dividends, and you can assert your rights under the law.

However, if it's just a wrapped asset, you can only rely on the issuer of the wrapped asset to pass the dividend along to you. Since you don’t actually hold the underlying security, you don’t have a legal claim against the original issuer.

In simple terms, wrapped assets create a disconnect between the buyer and the asset issuer, and we believe this disconnect is unnecessary. We advocate for investors to maintain a direct relationship with the asset issuer, and that’s the fundamental difference between wrapped assets and native assets.

Q5: You've got some serious partnerships. Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Nasdaq, major financial exchanges. These are massive names. Can you give us one or two real examples? What did Canton actually do in those deals? What kind of results are you seeing so far?

Yuval: Canton has many examples in this area.

First, let's talk about the repurchase (repo) market. Banks and traditional financial institutions use repos for mutual financing, lending funds, and securities, making it one of the largest markets globally. From a data perspective: in the U.S., the daily trading volume in the repo market is about $5 trillion, and globally it’s around $10 trillion. However, in the crypto industry, the repo market is still quite small.

Through our collaboration with Broadridge, we’ve brought repo transactions onto the blockchain. Today, we’re facilitating about $300 billion in on-chain transactions daily, significantly improving the efficiency and quality of lending and settlement in traditional finance.

Another example is U.S. Treasuries on the blockchain. About a month and a half ago, we partnered with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and announced that U.S. Treasuries can now be natively issued and circulated on Canton. This means you can trade U.S. Treasuries 24/7, marking a significant milestone in the digitalization of financial assets. In the future, more important asset classes will be brought onto Canton.

Q6: Landing these partnerships takes serious tech chops. We've written about Canton's consensus mechanism before. From where you sit, what are the areas where Canton is technically ahead of everyone else? And how do these advantages actually fuel Canton's growth going forward?

Yuval: All leading public blockchains have excellent technical teams, and the results are certainly impressive. What sets Canton apart is that our technical team isn’t necessarily smarter or stronger than others, but we have the unique ability to combine a very strong technical team with an equally strong market team to unleash even greater potential.

Let me give you an example: You could be incredibly smart and build the world’s most powerful engine, but if you make the wheels square, the car won’t move. This example illustrates that even if a technical team can create a powerful “engine,” we still need to know how to build the “entire car” to make it truly run fast.

Canton’s ability to integrate technology and market needs has enabled us to build not only a robust blockchain but also a system that truly meets the practical needs of institutional clients—one that understands, adapts to, and satisfies their operational requirements.

Additionally, we’ve implemented an ultra-high-performance BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus mechanism. What makes Canton unique is that we’ve split the consensus process into two layers: The first layer is executed by participants we refer to as "super validators," while the second layer involves edge nodes reaching consensus on the state and data of smart contracts themselves. With this design, we can achieve compliant privacy protection without relying on technologies like zero-knowledge proofs—this is one of our core innovations.

Q7: Canton's partners are everywhere. The U.S., Europe, Asia. We're sitting here in Korea right now. When you're bringing financial institutions on chain, what differences do you see across these regions? How does Korea compare to the U.S. or Europe? And how do you adjust your growth strategy for each market?

Yuval: I’d like to share the inspiration behind the name "Canton" for our project.

The name "Canton" comes from Switzerland’s "canton" system, where the country is made up of several states, each with its own rules. The tax systems, languages, and laws differ from one canton to another, and even the spelling of "canton" varies in different languages. However, they all operate under the same national framework and unified legal system.

Canton’s philosophy is similar: while countries are different, and laws and regulations aren’t always aligned, we aim to offer personalized solutions while enabling people, companies, and nations to come together and collaborate on the Canton platform. This is crucial.

Take Asia, for example: in South Korea, we focus on currency laws, while in Japan, the emphasis is on transparency and regulatory compliance. Canton’s flexibility allows it to adapt to different national regulations, making it an attractive choice for global institutions. This is why we’ve made progress across major continents—we can work within local regulatory and legal frameworks. Moving forward, our goal is to ensure we can seamlessly integrate and adapt to various jurisdictions' rules.

Some project teams have told me that Japan has the clearest regulatory framework in Asia right now. Because of that, certain RWA projects are only operating in Japan instead of Korea or China. Do you agree with that take? What's your view on this?

Yuval: Japan has always had a relatively open stance toward digital assets. As far as building Canton is concerned, I can say with certainty that we never expected to have to wait for regulatory changes in order to operate Canton.

I believe a key reason why companies are accelerating their move to the blockchain is that regulators have taken a positive approach toward the relevant technologies. However, we’ve already successfully communicated with regulators and businesses, demonstrating through real-world results that Canton can meet existing compliance requirements in various countries, even without new regulations coming into effect.

How many times have you been to Korea? What's your vibe on this trip? Anything interesting catch your attention? Are you excited about what Korea and Japan could bring to the table?

Yuval: This is my fourth time in Korea, and if I had to sum up my biggest takeaway from this trip, it would probably be that I need more sleep, haha.

This year’s Korea Blockchain Week is even more vibrant than before. This morning, I also heard that Canton hit a new historical high, which is great news. But I don’t focus too much on these numbers; I’m usually more focused on attending meetings and having in-depth discussions with those who are looking to build or get involved.

Additionally, we’ve noticed that, compared to previous years, there are many more advertisements this time, especially outdoor ads, and traditional audiences are showing more interest in crypto.

I’m definitely excited about the potential of markets like Korea and Japan, and that’s one of the reasons we’re here at Korea Blockchain Week. We’re really looking forward to the launch of Canton Coin in both Korea and Japan.

Q8: This year feels different. There's this sense that crypto regulation is getting friendlier. Do you feel that too, especially for what Canton is doing? And what obstacles are still in the way? What needs to get solved right now?

Yuval: What truly excites me is not just that regulations allow digital asset businesses to "operate," but more importantly, that they’ve created an environment where all parties are eager to actively participate. This is something we can look forward to globally.

That said, for large institutions, the ability to engage in digital asset business doesn’t mean they’ll stop prioritizing privacy or the custodianship and protection of user assets. This is one of the reasons I believe Canton holds an advantage.

When a positive regulatory stance, growing customer interest, and a blockchain that meets institutional requirements come together, it will provide a powerful driving force for the future development of on-chain finance.

Q9: When we talk about all this business stuff with institutions and partnerships, a lot of retail users think it has nothing to do with them. How can regular retail users actually participate in what Canton is building? What should they be looking forward to in the near term? Any events or developments coming up?

Yuval: We’ll be launching a funding program for developers and contributors through the Canton Foundation website. This initiative will be going live soon, and more information will be available on both the Canton and Canton Foundation websites.

At the same time, we’re also planning to list our token on major exchanges, allowing retail investors to participate and share in the development of the network alongside everyone else.

Additionally, we expect many applications to be deployed on Canton in the near future. It’s worth mentioning that Canton’s tokenomics will reward active users. Users who engage with applications on Canton will be eligible for token incentives.

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