There are several highly successful smart contract protocols in the blockchain ecosystem, and competition from new entrants is high.
Canton Network is one of the latest “next-gen layer 1s” competing for users and funding from incumbents like Ethereum and Solana. Along with SUI and Aptos, the rise of Canton challenges the assumption that there are too many blockchains.
@CantonNetwork’s rise may seem quick, but it’s been a decade in the making. 10 years of learning from the mistakes of others…@gazza_jenks and I chatted with @YuvalRooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, to hear Canton’s origin story. https://t.co/6koyyOsnht
— Robert Baggs (@rkbaggs) November 24, 2025
Yuval Ruth, co-founder of Digital Asset, appeared exclusively on Cointelegraph’s daily show “Chain Reaction” and detailed the inside story behind Canton Network. Canton Network has opted out of new coin offerings (ICOs) over a 10-year development process leading up to today.
“Our paper focused on serving large institutions. We have been very patient. We rejected the ICO. We reject pre-mining of tokens. We have been thinking seriously about Tokenomics,” Ruth told Cointelegraph.
“Every time we thought we were ready, someone else made a mistake. We were thinking, what if we make this mistake? It won’t be good.”
The Canton Network is designed for financial institution utilities, enabling secure, interoperable, and privacy-preserving transactions. Digital Asset, the company behind Canton Network, describes the protocol’s architecture as a “network of networks” for the purpose of tokenizing, trading, and settling real-world assets.
The protocol and its native token made headlines in 2025. Digital Asset closed a $135 million funding round in June to continue developing the Canton ecosystem and spearhead RWA tokenization on the protocol.
Then came biotech company Tharimmune, which raised $540 million in private funding to build the Canton Coin (CC) digital asset vault. DAT plans to use its proceeds to acquire and stake CC tokens as the network’s super validator.
Related: Tharimmune bets $540 million on Canton Coin in crypto treasury push
slow and steady wins the race
As Rooz explained, Digital Asset took a measured approach to developing and deploying Canton Network. Permissioned chains were launched in 2020 to measure network performance and what users want and need in terms of functionality.
“It probably took us about four years to build the first version of the ledger, and then another two to three years to get to the point where we could launch it without permission.”
Roose said developers have learned a lot from the launches of other layer 1 protocols and the early issues of established players like Ethereum.
“I think there’s a challenge here that people underestimate. Once you stand up a public network and you have a lot of builders running in production, it’s very difficult to change it later. I think it’s very difficult for a public permissionless chain to enforce privacy in a way that works as an afterthought without causing a lot of pain to the community,” Rooz said.
“Need-to-know”-based privacy
Privacy is a hot topic across the cryptocurrency industry, and protocols like Zcash are gaining significant mindshare and attention.
Ruth said it’s a positive development that industry players are finally championing the need for privacy in communications and transactions. Yet, in reality, many people have not paid much attention to this aspect of blockchain functionality in recent years.
“For the past 10 years, every time we’ve talked to crypto-native people and said privacy is a must, they’ve said, ‘You don’t understand crypto.’ The whole idea of crypto is not to ensure privacy,” Ruth said.
The Digital Asset CEO added that privacy ultimately comes in “many shapes and forms.” Zero-knowledge proof cryptography, which powers both Zcash and Canton, values anonymity over privacy.
“ZK comes from a world where people are saying they really want an on-chain user experience, a bearer instrument like cash, where no one can know what assets you have. I think that’s an interesting perspective. It’s very different from Bitcoin,” Roos said.
From a regulatory perspective, financial institutions and authorities must monitor activities to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money laundering standards.
“I think what Canton is doing that is different than Zcash is that Canton’s privacy model allows them to share information on a need-to-know basis. So if you’re a regulator, you can go to a stablecoin issuer and say, ‘Hey, I want to see all of Yuval’s activity.’ This is different from anonymity.”
Digital Asset is backed by major players in the global financial industry. BNP Paribas, Circle Ventures, Citadel Securities, Depository Trust and Clearing Company (DTCC) and Goldman Sachs were among the most significant investors in the 2025 funding round.
magazine: 2026 is the year of practical privacy in crypto: Canton, Zcash and more
