Cardano CIP-0113 Brings Freeze and Seize Controls to Tokens

Cardano has a new tool aimed squarely at banks, fund managers and stablecoin issuers. On October 7, 2026, the Cardano Foundation announced that Cardano CIP-0113, a programmable token standard, is live on the network's mainnet. The standard lets issuers attach compliance rules such as identity checks, sanctions screening, transfer restrictions and the power to freeze or seize tokens, with the Cardano ledger enforcing those rules every time a token moves.

What happened

The foundation made the announcement at the TOKEN2049 conference, according to its press release. It said the launch followed joint development with Cardano community experts and the completion of multiple independent security audits. Issuers of stablecoins, tokenized funds, bonds and other regulated assets can now build know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) checks, sanctions screening, freeze-and-seize functions and transfer restrictions into their tokens.

Tokens issued under the standard remain native Cardano assets. The compliance logic is attached to the token and checked whenever it is transferred, minted or burned. The foundation said the standard required no hard fork and that execution costs stay predictable regardless of how many inputs a transaction contains. Issuers choose from modular rule sets, called modules or substandards, or write their own, and can update them as regulation changes.

Wallets Eternl and GeroWallet, the CardanoScan explorer and BloxBean support the standard at launch. Separately, the Swiss Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA) recognized CIP-113 programmable asset tokens as a smart contract equivalent to its CMTAT framework for certifying ledger-based equity securities.

"The rules have to travel with the asset and be enforced every time it moves," said Frederik Gregaard, chief executive of the Cardano Foundation. "Cardano can now do that natively." Giovanni Gargiulo, a senior blockchain architect at the foundation, said that on Cardano "a programmable token is still a native asset, so the whole ecosystem can work with it, while the issuer's rules are checked by the ledger on every transaction."

The foundation also noted that international standard-setters, including the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, have identified programmability, the ability to hard-code compliance conditions into an asset, as central to the next generation of tokenized markets.

Why it matters

Regulated issuers need these controls before they can put real assets on a public blockchain. A stablecoin company may have to block an address or recover funds after a court order, and a fund manager may only be allowed to sell to verified investors. Until now, Cardano lacked a shared framework for those capabilities, so each project had to build its own and every wallet and app had to integrate tokens one by one. Cardano CIP-0113 replaces that with a common standard.

The freeze and seize powers have raised questions among holders. BeInCrypto addressed the main one directly: ADA itself is not turned into a freezable asset. The controls apply only to tokens whose issuers opt into the standard. "Think of the standard as an opt-in toolkit rather than a network-wide rule," the outlet wrote.

ADA's price still fell. BeInCrypto said the token traded around $0.253, down 8.71% over 24 hours, sliding from near $0.28 to a low of about $0.25 as the wider crypto market declined. That move looks more tied to the broader selloff in digital assets than to the standard itself.

One technical detail is worth noting. Because Cardano bundles multiple tokens in shared transaction outputs, a restriction on one token can affect others held alongside it. BeInCrypto said the standard addresses this with a mechanism called "unfracking."

The launch fits a wider push to bring regulated assets on-chain. South Korea has been setting rules for tokenized securities, and U.S. banks are preparing stablecoin subsidiaries under the GENIUS Act, as our report on Fed guidance for stablecoin applications described. Issuers in those markets will want compliance tools that work on public chains.

What's next

The real test is adoption. A standard only matters if issuers use it, and the foundation said it will work directly with projects and institutions building on it, including further development of a securities module for regulated financial instruments. Watch for the first stablecoin or tokenized fund to launch using Cardano CIP-0113, and whether the CMTA recognition draws Swiss equity issuers to the chain.

Competition is stiff. Ethereum and other networks already host most tokenized assets and stablecoins. Cardano's pitch is that its tokens stay native assets with ledger-enforced rules, rather than relying on wrappers or closed systems. Whether that difference persuades institutions will become clearer over the coming quarters, as the standard moves from launch to real issuance.