The Cardano Foundation has spun out Veridian as an independent company building digital identity infrastructure.
The Cardano Foundation, a Swiss-based not-for-profit organisation supporting Cardano blockchain infrastructure, has launched Veridian as an independent commercial company focused on digital identity and trust infrastructure. Led by CEO Thomas A. Mayfield, Veridian enables individuals, organisations, and AI agents to verify identities and delegated authority without relying on a central database.
Identity gaps and regulatory momentum
The spin-out comes as identity risks grow across digital channels. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, identity fraud cost US consumers USD 27.3 billion in 2025, while personal data is routinely copied and shared without the consent of the people it describes. AI agents are also executing payments, stablecoin transfers, and trades on behalf of people and companies, with no reliable way to verify or revoke their authority. Legislators have begun to respond: in 2026, Utah became the first US state to pass State-Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI) legislation (SB 275), mandating privacy-preserving identity controlled by the individual, and more than ten states are observing its model. Veridian has mapped all 142 requirements of Utah’s SEDI implementation guide.
Mayfield stated that the internet was built without a way to prove who is on the other side of an interaction, a problem he described as far greater now that AI agents move money and data on behalf of users. According to Mayfield, Veridian provides people, organisations, and agents with credentials that can be verified instantly and revoked just as quickly, without a central database to compromise. He added that independence allows the company to bring the technology to governments and enterprises.
Tokenised shares and expansion plans
Veridian plans to seek strategic partners and investors in 2027 to support its expansion in the US, where it aims to serve state government demand, as well as its enterprise business in Europe and issuer network in Asia-Pacific. The company also plans to develop capabilities for verifying the authority delegated to AI agents. As part of the spin-out, Veridian’s shares have been tokenised as ledger-based securities under Switzerland’s Distributed Ledger Technology Act. The issuance uses CIP-0113, a programmable token standard developed by the Cardano Foundation and the Cardano community. According to the Foundation, the shares represent the first asset deployed on Cardano using this standard. The Foundation’s CEO, Frederik Gregaard, who will chair Veridian, and its Chief Legal Officer, Nicolas Jacquemart, have joined the company’s board.
The Foundation said the separation gives Veridian greater independence to pursue commercial opportunities while allowing both organisations to continue collaborating on digital identity infrastructure. Veridian is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and also operates in the US. Its development will focus on identity verification for governments and enterprises, alongside mechanisms that allow credentials and delegated permissions to be checked and revoked.
