First draft asset virtualisation

Development Fund Proposal Submission

Proposal file

---

Summary

Asset Virtualisation gives every Canton application native access to external-chain assets and liquidity, with no bridges, wrapped tokens, or custodians: users deposit from standard wallets and exchange accounts, and assets never leave their home chain. It ships as an open-source SDK with Temple, Canton's first institutional CLOB, as the live reference deployment, and solves Canton DeFi's cold-start problem for the whole ecosystem. The request is $400,000 across five milestones, two of which are gated on adoption (two applications live in production, $1M in organic 30-day volume).

---

Checklist

• [x] Proposal file added under /proposals/
• [x] Milestones and funding amounts defined
• [x] Acceptance criteria included
• [x] Alignment with Canton priorities described

---

Notes for Reviewers

• SIG (not Sig) alignment: App Building and Developer Experience (interoperability across wallets, assets, and dApps; reduced friction for users reaching Canton from standard wallets).
• Champion: Need to get one!
• How this differs from the bridges on file (#13 Asterizm, #147 LynoBridge): wrapped-token bridges cannot take deposits from CEXs or custody accounts; Asset Virtualisation accepts deposits from any standard wallet or exchange account and withdraws back to the user's native address. Bridged assets are stranded outside their home ecosystem's markets; virtualised assets stay on their home chain and keep access to its liquidity and protocols (Uniswap, Aave, Raydium, Hyperliquid).
• Execution risk is low: the same system is live in production on Ethereum and Solana, built by the team that created NEAR Chain Signatures. David Millar-Durrant (CEO) is ex-Digital Asset; Ognjen Marić, author of the original Canton Network whitepaper, advises on the architecture.
• Demand evidence: attestations in the proposal from Temple, Bima, and Minted, each naming the specific product they will build on this integration.