Canton’s Yuval Rooz says smart contract blockchains face a reckoning over value gap

Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset and co-founder of the Canton Network, asserts that many smart contract blockchains face a reckoning because their high valuations do not align with their actual economic throughput, recurring revenue, or real-world asset activity. He contends that many networks were designed for retail speculation rather than regulated institutional workflows, leading to a disconnect where low usage inflates token value. Rooz criticizes token issuance models copied from Bitcoin, where rewards flow primarily to validators regardless of chain utility. In contrast, Canton's token design burns tokens with every transaction, tying value directly to network utility. He also advocates for merit-based compensation for builders, citing models like Hyperliquid where revenue is used for token buybacks as more convincing for investors. He remains skeptical of metrics like Total Value Locked (TVL), emphasizing revenue and usage instead. Canton is gaining traction with traditional finance players like BNY, Nasdaq, and DTCC, processing significant daily repo transactions and generating millions in daily fees. Rooz believes the market is shifting toward rational economic structures, demanding real utility, and notes that even stablecoins have not achieved true product-market fit until over 50% of their usage is non-crypto related.

(Source：CoinDesk)