Overview
The Cardano Token Registry is a free public list that gives tokens a readable name, ticker, logo, and decimal setting. Token creators add their details, and wallets, explorers, and other apps look them up to label tokens correctly1,2. It works a bit like a phone book: the token's on-chain ID is the number, and the registry supplies the name that goes with it.
The Cardano Foundation maintains the registry as a GitHub repository for Cardano mainnet tokens1. It follows CIP-26, a Cardano standard for linking hard-to-read blockchain codes to details people can understand, kept separate from the blockchain itself3. The Foundation's metadata server at tokens.cardano.org then makes the entries available to apps through a public connection point (an API)1.
Key Features
- Readable names instead of long codes. Each Cardano Token Registry entry ties a token's on-chain ID (its policy ID, a code fixed when the token is created, plus its asset name) to a name and description, with an optional ticker, website, logo, and decimals value1.
- Balances that display correctly. The decimals value tells a wallet where to put the decimal point, so with a decimals value of 6, a wallet shows 1,000,000 base units of a token as 1.0 instead of one million2.
- Free, with no blockchain fee. Registering costs nothing and leaves no footprint on the blockchain, and a token works with or without an entry2.
- Signed to prove control of the token. Entries carry digital signatures that are checked against the token's minting policy (the rules for who can create it), or against keys the submitter provides for tokens controlled by smart contracts, programs that run on the blockchain1.
- On-chain and off-chain details in one lookup. The Cardano Foundation's metadata server combines registry entries with CIP-68 details stored on the blockchain, and a matching server covers Cardano's preprod test network1.
What to Expect
Token creators. You prepare a small structured text file (a JSON file) with your token's details, sign it, and submit it as a pull request, which is GitHub's way of proposing a change1. Each submission adds or edits a single file. Automated checks test its format before a human reviewer decides whether to merge it1. The project wiki has step-by-step guides for standard and smart-contract tokens, plus a page on updating an entry4. Removing one follows the same signed process: you set the name and description to "VOID" and ask for deletion in the pull request title5.
Everyday token holders. You will rarely visit the Cardano Token Registry itself. You see its work when a wallet or block explorer shows a token's name and logo instead of a string of letters and numbers. Only the on-chain ID is unique in the registry, so two different tokens can share a name or ticker6. The Foundation's terms describe its approval as a technical step that does not verify or endorse the information in an entry7.
Developers. Apps can fetch one token's details by adding its ID to the end of tokens.cardano.org/metadata/, and the same requests work against the preprod server for test tokens1. The API documentation describes the rest of the interface. Both the registry and its API are free to use under the Foundation's terms of use7,8.
