Canton Network tapped for US benefits pilot in 3 states

Digital Asset and the American Idea Foundation have selected Canton Network for a three-state US benefits pilot scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027, subject to federal approval.

Digital Asset and the American Idea Foundation said in a Friday announcement that they will support three states preparing to test the Resources for Independence, Stability, and Employment program, known as RISE.

Former US House Speaker Paul Ryan founded the American Idea Foundation, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit focused on economic policy and programs designed to address poverty. Digital Asset created the Canton Network, which will provide the technology used to distribute and monitor benefits during the pilots.

Subject to federal approval, the first programs are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027. Neither organization identified the three states, the federal agencies involved in the approval process, nor the benefit programs that would take part.

RISE would combine separate benefit payments

Under the proposed model, states could combine assistance from several programs into one or two payments each month. Digital Asset and the foundation said existing programs often use separate eligibility requirements, reporting procedures, payment dates, and income limits, making them difficult for recipients and agencies to manage together.

RISE would let states assign money to categories such as food, child care, and cash while preserving the rules attached to each program. According to the announcement, the platform could verify a recipient’s identity and participation requirements, provide mobile access, and apply spending restrictions when funds are used.

As household income changes, the system would also recalculate the amount of assistance available to a family. The organizations said the mechanism is intended to reduce sudden losses of support when recipients enter the workforce or earn more money.

Paul Ryan said the pilots would examine whether states can reduce such penalties while keeping benefit programs accountable.

“By combining fragmented benefits, reducing penalties as families earn more, and rigorously measuring results, these pilots can help show what a modern safety net should look like.”

Rather than maintaining separate records for every participating program, authorized agencies would receive access to information covering deposits, purchases, balances, declined transactions, and spending by benefit category. Nonprofit case managers and independent researchers could also view the information permitted for their respective roles.

Digital Asset said government dashboards would show enrollment records, pending approvals, completed tasks, payment eligibility, and the total value of distributed funds. Access would depend on each organization’s permissions, limiting the amount of personal or transaction data visible to parties outside a case.

Canton Network would control data access and payment rules

Canton would coordinate the rules, permissions, and transactions behind each payment while maintaining controls over sensitive information, according to Digital Asset. States could encode individual benefit requirements into the distribution process instead of applying every rule after a payment has been made.

Transaction records would give agencies an audit trail showing how money entered the system and where recipients spent it. Digital Asset said participating governments could use the records to monitor compliance and identify payments that did not follow program conditions.

Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset’s co-founder and CEO, said Canton allows approved participants to coordinate transactions and share rules while retaining the privacy and control required by institutions. RISE would apply the network’s existing permission system to public-benefit administration rather than capital-market settlement.

The evaluation phase is expected to track employment, earnings, benefit use, education, training, housing, and household stability. According to the announcement, governments and independent evaluators would receive transaction and compliance data during the program instead of relying only on later reviews.

Results from the first three states would inform further pilots. The organizations said later versions could be adapted to different state rules, case-management systems, benefit structures, and groups of recipients, although they did not provide a schedule for additional deployments.

Canton has tested private payments and government bonds

Canton’s earlier projects have concentrated on regulated financial transactions that require participants to share selected information without publishing complete records on a public ledger.

In June, crypto.news reported that Visa and Brale had begun a private stablecoin settlement test using SBC, Brale’s US dollar-backed token. The proof of concept examined whether financial institutions could settle payments while restricting confidential transaction data to involved parties and authorized regulators.

Four Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group companies launched a Japanese bond repo trial in August with Digital Asset and Progmat. The participants are testing automated processing and real-time settlement for transactions backed by Japanese government bonds.

Supported through Japan’s Financial Services Agency Payment Innovation Project, the MUFG test also covers the possible use of tokenized deposits or stablecoins for the payment side of repo trades. A separate April trial involving Japan Securities Clearing Corporation, Mizuho, Nomura and Digital Asset examined whether Japanese government bonds could move as digital collateral while retaining their status under the country’s existing laws.

Institutional access expanded again in August when Interstice Digital introduced a cross-chain swap engine connecting Canton with Ethereum, Solana, and Robinhood Chain. FalconX supplies liquidity for the system, while Interstice said its structure does not require the company to hold users’ assets.

Canton Coin gains a direct US investment route

For US investors, Canton Network already has a connection to the regulated securities market through 21Shares’ exchange-traded fund. The asset manager launched the Nasdaq-listed Canton ETF under the ticker TCAN in May, giving brokerage customers exposure to Canton Coin without requiring them to hold the token directly.

21Shares listed the fund with a 0.50% gross expense ratio and described it as the first US ETF tied to Canton Coin. The issuer said institutions including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Deutsche Bank had participated in network testing, validation or governance, while cautioning that their involvement did not amount to an endorsement of the token or ETF.

Canton Coin, used to pay transaction fees through the network’s Global Synchronizer, was trading near $0.107 on Aug. 21. Market data showed a capitalization of about $4.2 billion, a 23rd-place cryptocurrency ranking and a gain of roughly 9% over the previous seven days.