CIP-56 is Canton’s token standard, think ERC-20, but built for institutional assets and regulated workflows.
What is CIP-56?
CIP-56 is a token interface standard that defines how on-chain assets are presented and managed on @CantonNetwork, i.e., how tokens move securely between participants in a consistent, interoperable way.
It’s Canton’s counterpart to Ethereum’s ERC-20, covering the same familiar basics:
- Query balances
- Transfer tokens
- Query transaction history
…but CIP-56 extends that baseline with features you need for real institutional rails.
What CIP-56 adds
CIP-56 is designed for regulated assets and workflows, so it includes:
1) Privacy-preserving balance + transaction management
Holdings and transfers aren’t broadcast to the whole world, information is shared on a need-to-know basis, while still supporting compliant operations.
2) Native multi-step transfers (built-in compliance controls)
This is huge for real assets:
- Token admins can control who transfers assets to whom
- Receivers can control from whom they receive assets
So instead of bolting compliance on top, the workflow is part of the token standard itself.
3) Native Atomic Delivery-vs-Payment (DvP)
Atomic DvP is a core building block for capital markets. CIP-56 supports DvP settlement natively, enabling real-world assets to move compliantly on-chain while still benefiting from composability.
Why CIP-56 exists
As the Canton ecosystem grows (issuers, custodians, wallets, apps), you need standardization so everything works together without every integration becoming bespoke.
CIP-56 enables:
- Native institutional workflows with privacy + compliance
- Control (asset registries control the structure of transfer workflows)
- Composable registries, assets, and applications
- A better UX (unified portfolio balances + transaction history when wallets support the standard)
It’s already being adopted
A few real examples of CIP-56 in the ecosystem:
- @dfnsHQ uses CIP-56 in its wallet-as-a-service stack on Canton, enabling secure custody/transfer/reporting plus live balances, indexed transaction history, delegated transfers, and transfers that can be approved/rejected via business logic.
- @BitSafe_Finance adopted CIP-56 for CBTC (wrapped Bitcoin on Canton) so it can move cleanly across wallets and applications without custom token integrations.
- @Tradeweb executed a major on-chain repo transaction leveraging CIP-56, real-time, fully on-chain financing of U.S. Treasuries against USDC, showing how CIP-56 enables atomic workflows for 24/7 financing.
If you’re building
The takeaway is simple: CIP-56 is the standard interface that makes assets portable and composable across Canton’s wallets and applications, with privacy + compliance controls as first-class primitives, not afterthoughts.
