Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset and co-founder of Canton Network, issued a stark warning to the smart contract blockchain sector: demonstrate real financial utility or face devaluation.
“People have assigned a lot of value to these networks based on what they say they’ll become,” Rooz stated. “But when you look at how much actual business they’re doing, there’s a massive disconnect.”
The Canton Network is designed as a privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure for connecting financial institutions and their tokenized assets across permissioned applications.
Rooz explained that many smart contract networks were built for retail speculation rather than regulated institutional workflows. He emphasized that metrics like sustained economic throughput, recurring revenue, and real-world asset activity often reveal a gap between valuation and actual financial usage. Building for global institutions requires a focus on privacy, compliance, and interoperability, he noted.
He distinguished assets like Bitcoin, valued as a store of value, from smart contract platforms aiming to be the future financial infrastructure. "If that’s the pitch, then financial institutions should be using them at scale," Rooz asserted, noting that most are not.
Rooz criticized token design flaws, particularly the replication of Bitcoin's issuance model for platforms. He argued that new tokens often flow to validators irrespective of actual economic activity, leading to dilution and little value accrual for holders. In contrast, Canton’s token is designed to reflect network utility, with transactions burning tokens and no priority fees. The network also employs a merit-based distribution of new tokens to users and applications that generate fees.
He cited Hyperliquid as a model where revenue buybacks incentivize token value. "When you do buybacks, price goes up. That’s a much more convincing reason to hold a token," Rooz said.
Digital Asset announced strategic investments from major financial players including BNY, Nasdaq, S&P Global, and iCapital. Bloomberg is now publishing data on Canton's activity, and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) selected Canton as its tokenization partner.
Rooz also expressed skepticism about Total Value Locked (TVL) as a primary metric, asserting that usage is what truly matters. While Canton's privacy features limit public data, Broadridge processes approximately $400 billion in daily repo transactions on the network, with daily fees ranging between $2.5 million and $3 million.
Rooz anticipates a market shift as investor demands increase. "When the market turns, investors get much more demanding," he said. He believes this will lead to a more rational economic structure, moving away from purely speculative tokens towards those tied to revenue-generating platforms.
Even stablecoins, Rooz argued, have not yet achieved full product-market fit, with a majority of their usage still tied to crypto trading rather than non-crypto financial applications. Canton's strategy focuses on integrating real-world assets and collateral to move beyond crypto-native use cases into mainstream financial workflows.
“If smart contract chains are the next set of financial rails, then financial companies should be using them for financial applications,” Rooz concluded. “Uptake, activity and usage; the value will follow.”