Zenith advances roadmap toward full EVM-composability on Canton MainNet

Earlier this year, Zenith demonstrated the first atomic transaction flows between EVM applications and Canton Network, proving that Solidity applications deployed to Zenith can interact natively with Canton's institutional infrastructure.

Atomic swaps between Canton and Zenith

Today, Zenith has completed the next major roadmap milestone: as per the CIP deliverables related to Zenith’s Super Validator on Canton, we’ve demonstrated an atomic swap between a CIP-56 asset on Canton and an ERC-20 asset on Zenith via a Canton-native app on a feature-complete test network, between a Canton-only user with just a partyID and a Zenith-only user with just an EVM account.

In order to facilitate this, Zenith has built external_call(), a primitive that is now merged into the Canton repository, and allows Daml contracts on Canton to invoke Solidity contracts on Zenith from within Daml workflows, and after receiving the EVM execution results, settle multi-leg operations across Canton and Zenith atomically through Canton’s Global Synchronizer. With this, the foundations for full EVM composability at the protocol layer have been laid, and Zenith is preparing for production deployments.

The external_call() primitive is scheduled for rollout to Canton MainNet as part of the upcoming Canton 3.6 release in late Q3 or early Q4 2026. With Zenith EVM going live on Canton MainNet soon after, developers will be able to deploy Solidity applications and EVM-based subnets that interact directly with Canton's institutional flows without bridges, rewrites, or compliance tradeoffs.

Upcoming testnet and early pilots

With this work complete, Zenith moves into its next phase: testnet environments and an expanding stream of early pilots. That includes our recently announced participation in Progmat's Tokenized JGB / On-Chain Repo Working Group, a major banking consortium working to bring $1.6 trillion in Japanese Government Bond repo markets on-chain. Zenith joins as a core infrastructure provider alongside BlackRock Japan, State Street Japan, JPX, MUFG, Mizuho, SMBC, SBI Securities, and 40+ other leading institutions.

"Completing Milestone 2 means EVM composability is becoming a reality on Canton MainNet, not a far-fetched roadmap item. The external_call() primitive opens up an entirely new design space for developers. The institutional subnets on Canton can now compose with EVM applications and assets on Zenith directly. The opportunities this creates for Canton are significant, and we are just getting started."

• Norbert Vadas, Head of Product at Zenith

Active participation in Canton’s governance

Alongside the technical progress, Zenith continues to deepen its role within the Canton ecosystem. Our Head of Product Norbert Vadas has been elected to the Canton Development Fund Core Contributors Group, while Zenith Co-founder & CBO Heslin Kim has joined the Voting Committee, strengthening Zenith's contribution to the network's technical direction and governance. These add to the seats Zenith already holds across four Canton Foundation committees and Heslin's position as one of 7 voting members on the Protocol Development Fund. The depth of that participation reflects a deliberate commitment to Canton's long-term direction that predates most of the institutional momentum now visible in the ecosystem. 

Closing thoughts

A more detailed technical deep dive into the architecture and capabilities demonstrated in this milestone will follow soon. Today, we're celebrating another important step toward bringing full Ethereum programmability to Canton MainNet.