Canton Network steps on the gas in Asia Pacific
JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Circle, Cumberland, Goldman Sachs and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
These are major institutions with massive public footprints that all have something in common: They’ve worked with Canton Network.
Canton is a blockchain protocol linking Daml applications — Daml is an enterprise-grade, open-source smart contract language — defining who is entitled to see, and who is authorized to change any given contract.
In practice, this allows transactions on shared infrastructure while maintaining privacy, ensuring that only the relevant parties can access sensitive data.
In plain language, it means Canton solves the problem of maintaining transparent transactions while providing the tighter privacy demanded by financial regulations.
This approach positions Canton not as a general-purpose blockchain, but as infrastructure purpose-built for regulated financial markets.
This breakthrough has become one of Canton’s main sources of attraction for such financial corporations, including Korean players sitting on the edge of their seats, awaiting the green light from the Korean government on who can stake and move digital assets, not to mention how.
“We feel the time is here. I’ve been here since the Web2 days. (I’ve seen) Korea adapt very fast. We want to be very prepared,” said Thomas Chou, during an interview on the sidelines of Frontier, a blockchain and digital asset seminar hosted by Deloitte and Tiger Research, sponsored by Avalanche.
Chou is the head of Growth for Asia-Pacific for Canton Foundation, the not-for-profit governance body overseeing Canton Network.
The foundation acts as a steward and coordinator, supporting governance across network participants and Global Synchronizer operators rather than acting as a centralized decision-maker, according to Chou.
This governance structure strongly resembles Switzerland’s “cantons,” the unit indicating the 26 districts of the Swiss Confederation. The company was named after this terminology, noting that each canton has its own constitution, legislature, police and courts.
Chou’s mission in Korea — and Asia at large — is to promote Canton’s capacity to fill the privacy gap that many institutional market players are facing as they move toward real-time synchronization of financial activity.
“(My job) is supporting and leading everything for growth across the eco-system,” Chou said. He added that the company was also on the lookout for good developers in Korea. “Small numbers but very smart and dedicated.”
Canton is focused on enabling regulated financial institutions and market infrastructure, while supporting broader ecosystem participation as the market continues to evolve.
Despite Korea’s reputation for hard-line regulations, Chou believes Korea and the US will be the two main drivers of the digital asset era.
“We’re definitely looking at North America and Asia as a whole,” he said. “One thing is clear: Onchain infrastructure is becoming increasingly relevant across global markets.”
In 2025, Canton introduced its native utility token designed to reward real network usage.
The Canton Coin deploys a burn-mint equilibrium model designed to align incentives with real network activity, while being structured to meet the needs of regulated institutions.
Similar to the original burn-mint equilibrium models, the Canton Coin was launched pre-mine, no pre-sale, with no special allocations to founders or foundations. Every coin in circulation has been earned through participation in the network.
But unlike the original model, in the Canton Network, a corresponding amount of coins is burned when the usage fee is paid. This mechanism helps manage supply while allowing institutions to interact with the network without needing to actively hold tokens.
“The focus has been on building sustainable infrastructure first, with token design supporting long-term network participation,”
Chou said, explaining the foundation’s philosophy. Canton Foundation was founded in 2024.
As tokenized asset markets are projected to reach $16 trillion by 2030, Canton appears to be positioning itself as the settlement layer of choice for regulated institutions.
With increasing institutional adoption of tokenized assets, the role of compliant, industry watchers observe that privacy-enabled infrastructure is becoming central to how financial markets evolve.
The question now for the financial industry is no longer whether institutional blockchain infrastructure can work — it is whether legacy systems can afford to be left behind.
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