Zenith has opened its EVM Testnet to the public, giving developers the ability to deploy Solidity applications that compose atomically with the Canton Network.
The testnet marks the first public instance of an EVM execution environment integrated directly with Canton’s institutional infrastructure. Developers can deploy standard Solidity applications to Zenith using familiar Ethereum tooling, while transactions are processed through Canton’s consensus and finalized on Canton.
The approach is designed to let developers work with Canton without rewriting existing Solidity code, learning a new programming language, or relying on a third-party bridge.
Developers can access the Zenith documentation to get started.
Why the Zenith EVM Testnet matters
Canton has positioned itself as infrastructure for institutional financial markets, with a focus on privacy, interoperability and regulated workflows. Zenith’s EVM environment is designed to provide an entry point for the broader Ethereum developer ecosystem into that infrastructure.
The move addresses a gap identified in Canton’s Polyglot Whitepaper, which examined the need to connect Canton’s institutional infrastructure with established developer ecosystems, including the EVM.
“This is another key step toward enabling Solidity developers to deploy applications that leverage Canton’s interoperable, institutional-grade infrastructure. Combined with broader growth across the network, this will help accelerate Canton’s utility flywheel,” said Shaul Kfir, Co-founder and Head of Strategic Initiatives at Digital Asset.
Teemu Päivinen, Co-founder and CEO of Zenith, said the testnet is intended to give Ethereum developers direct access to Canton infrastructure: “Canton proved that institutions want blockchain infrastructure built for regulated markets. This Testnet opens that infrastructure to Ethereum developers. Teams can start building collateral management, lending, tokenized assets, and perpetual futures directly on Zenith, with a direct line into Canton.”
Standard EVM tooling
Zenith EVM is built on Reth and exposes standard Ethereum JSON-RPC endpoints. As a result, developers can use familiar Ethereum development workflows and tools with the testnet.
Among the supported workflows are:
- Adding Zenith EVM Testnet to MetaMask and other compatible wallets
- Deploying standard Solidity contracts using tools such as Foundry and Hardhat
- Using standard gas estimation, transaction receipts, events and ABI decoding
- Deploying Daml contracts on the underlying Canton test network
- Testing workflows that settle atomically across Canton and Zenith EVM
This allows existing Solidity applications to be tested on Zenith without requiring developers to adopt a new programming environment.
Tracking transactions across Zenith and Canton
The Zenith EVM Explorer provides standard views for blocks, transactions and smart contracts, alongside a Linked Transactions view.
The latter connects an EVM transaction with its corresponding Canton update, allowing developers to follow the transaction lifecycle across both environments.
EVM execution coordinated through Canton
Zenith describes its EVM environment as an EVM-based subnet or EVM extension of Canton, with block production, canonical chain state and finality mediated through Canton’s consensus.
According to Zenith, this architecture provides deterministic finality for EVM transactions in seconds while allowing EVM activity to participate in Canton-based workflows. A key component of this architecture is external_call(), a primitive that allows Daml contracts on Canton to invoke Solidity contracts on Zenith from within Daml workflows. This makes it possible for a single transaction to contain both Canton-native Daml operations and EVM operations. The transaction either succeeds in full or is aborted, avoiding partially committed state between the two environments.
Zenith previously demonstrated this model in an end-to-end cross-VM atomic workflow involving a CIP-56 asset on Canton and an ERC-20 asset on Zenith. The demonstration showed how a Canton-native application could coordinate the two environments between a Canton-only user and an EVM-only user without requiring either participant to directly interact with the other environment.
Further technical details are available in Zenith’s architecture documentation.
Testnet status and network details
The Zenith EVM Testnet operates on a full Canton test environment with its own synchronizer. Developers can deploy both Daml and Solidity contracts and test transaction flows between the two environments.
The testnet also includes Gateway, Zenith’s atomic interoperability solution, as part of the core environment. This allows developers to experiment with token movements and cross-chain workflows involving Canton.
The testnet is not yet optimized for production-level performance. Zenith expects network parameters and implementation details to change as the system is tested under real workloads, with throughput expected to increase and block frequency decrease as development progresses toward mainnet.
The current testnet is primarily intended to validate the developer experience, test EVM compatibility and cross-environment workflows, harden Canton-mediated block production, and identify issues ahead of production deployment.
Network details
Network: Zenith EVM Testnet
Chain ID: 936485
RPC: rpc.testnet.zenith.network
Synchronizer: synchronizer.testnet.zenith.network
Explorer: explorer.testnet.zenith.network
Faucet: Zenith EVM Testnet Faucet
Native currency: Zenith token
Symbol: ZTH
Decimals: 18
What comes next
With the EVM testnet now publicly available, Zenith’s next development priorities include security hardening and performance optimization ahead of production deployment. The external_call() primitive is scheduled for rollout to Canton MainNet as part of the planned Canton 3.6 release in Q4 2026.
Zenith is targeting a mainnet deployment of its EVM environment on Canton following that release.
Building on Zenith EVM
The Zenith EVM Testnet provides a public environment for developers to experiment with Solidity applications that interact directly with Canton infrastructure. Developers can access the Zenith documentation, explore transactions through the Zenith EVM Explorer, and obtain testnet ZTH through the faucet.
About Zenith
Zenith is the EVM and SVM extension for Canton Network, co-architected with Digital Asset's co-founders alongside Canton's core protocol development. Zenith gives developers a way to deploy Ethereum- and Solana-compatible applications that interact directly with Canton's privacy-preserving infrastructure, bringing existing Solidity and Rust applications on-chain without building new infrastructure from scratch. Through Zenith EVM and Zenith Stack, institutions and developers can run DeFi primitives, RWA protocols, lending markets, and payment flows alongside the workflows already operating on Canton at U.S. securities-market scale. Zenith, the registered Tier-1 Canton Super Validator, is trusted by the institutional groups shaping tokenized finance today - including Progmat's JGB working group and DTCC's Digital Assets Solutions Industry Working Group.
