What is Token standard?

A token standard is the interface contract every token on a chain follows: ERC-20 on EVM chains, TRC-20 on Tron, SPL and Token-2022 on Solana. The standard is why any wallet can hold any token and any swap can price any pair without bespoke integration.

Extensions carry the interesting tradeoffs: ERC-20 variants add hooks for compliance or gas efficiency, Token-2022 adds transfer fees and privacy primitives. The standard's discipline is what makes a token an asset instead of a bespoke program.

How Token standard works

A token standard is the published interface every token on a chain agrees to implement, the contract behind the contracts. It defines the verbs, balance checks, transfers, approvals or their equivalents, and the events that announce them, so that every wallet, pool, explorer, and checkout can treat every token through one integration. The standard is why tokens are a category rather than thousands of bespoke integrations.

The standard is also where policy meets mechanism. Extensions and variant standards encode behavior the base interface omits: Solana's Token-2022 carries compliance hooks and fees; EVM variants add transfer taxes or gas optimizations. When a tokenized asset enforces eligibility at the chain level, the enforcement lives in its choice of standard and extensions, which is why the standard a token follows is a diligence fact, not trivia.

The families map by chain: ERC-20 across EVM, TRC-20 on Tron, SPL and Token-2022 on Solana. Cross-chain assets exist as separate deployments per standard, each a distinct token tracking the same underlying. The U.CASH directory states the standard beside every asset for exactly this reason.

Token standard in practice

A tokenized stock's page notes it is a Token-2022 asset with transfer rules enabled; its EVM twin is an ERC-20 with issuer hooks. Same underlying, two standards, both statements checkable on-chain, which is what makes the disclosure meaningful rather than decorative.

Token standard on U.CASH

Every asset on U.CASH follows its chain's standard (the asset pages state which) so wallets and the swap engine handle them all through one interface per chain.

For merchants, standards are the leverage behind accepting many assets cheaply: one interface per chain covers the whole roster, and the variants' behavior differences, fees and rules, are stated facts rather than surprises mid-settlement. The asset pages carry those facts per token.