Skip to main content
When you fill a deferred (forward) offer on Canopy, you do not immediately receive the underlying asset. Instead, the protocol mints claim tokens — standard ERC-20 tokens that represent your right to the collateral locked in escrow for that series. The underlying assets remain secured in the venue until the unlock time, but the claim tokens themselves are freely transferable from the moment you receive them. This transforms what would otherwise be an illiquid bilateral agreement into a liquid, programmable digital asset you can move, trade, or deploy across DeFi.

​
What Claim Tokens Represent

Each claim token corresponds to a specific series — a unique combination of asset and unlock time. Claim tokens are backed 1:1 by the escrowed collateral: if the series’ backing is 1,000,000 TECH tokens and there are 1,000,000 claim tokens in circulation, each claim token entitles you to exactly 1 TECH token at redemption.
Each series issues a distinct ERC-20 contract with its own onchain address. The series is defined by (asset, unlockTime) — not the quote token. This means all deferred fills for the same asset with the same unlock time share a single fungible claim token, regardless of which quote token was used for payment.

​
Key Properties

Standard ERC-20

Claim tokens implement the full ERC-20 interface. Any wallet, exchange, or protocol that supports ERC-20 can hold or transfer them without custom integration.

1:1 Backing

Each claim token is backed by exactly one unit of the underlying asset in escrow. The protocol enforces claimToken.totalSupply() == series.backing as an invariant.

Escrow Stays Locked

The underlying collateral never leaves escrow while claims are outstanding. Transfers of claim tokens do not touch the escrow balance.

Redemption Follows Ownership

Whoever holds the claim tokens at the unlock time is entitled to redeem. There is no registry of original buyers — ownership is determined entirely by the ERC-20 balance.

​
What You Can Do with Claim Tokens

Because claim tokens are standard ERC-20 assets, you have full flexibility in how you manage your forward position from the moment you receive them:
Keep the claim tokens in your wallet and redeem the underlying collateral once the unlock time passes. This is the simplest path: buy the forward, wait, redeem.
Transfer or sell the claim tokens on any secondary market before the unlock time. The buyer of your claim tokens inherits the right to redeem — you exit the position without waiting for settlement.
Deposit claim tokens into lending markets, vaults, or other DeFi protocols that accept ERC-20 collateral. You can borrow against your forward position while the underlying collateral remains secured in the venue’s escrow.
Build new financial products on top of claim tokens — structured products, yield strategies, secondary order books, or derivatives that reference the claim token’s value.
Transfer claim tokens to any wallet, multisig, or smart contract that supports ERC-20, including hardware wallets, DAO treasuries, and custody solutions.
Transferring claim tokens transfers the right to redeem the underlying collateral. If you send your claim tokens to another address, that address — not you — will receive the escrowed assets at redemption. Treat claim tokens with the same care as the assets they represent.

​
Redemption

At or after the unlock time, the current holder of claim tokens can redeem them for the underlying collateral on a strict 1:1 basis. The protocol burns the exact number of claim tokens submitted and releases the corresponding assets directly to the caller’s wallet. Redemption is permissionless — no approval, whitelist, or administrator is required.
1

Unlock Time Passes

The series’ unlock timestamp is reached. Claims become immediately redeemable — no off-chain trigger or admin action is needed.
2

Holder Calls Redeem

The current claim token holder submits a redemption transaction specifying the series ID and number of claim tokens to burn.
3

Tokens Are Burned

The protocol burns the submitted claim tokens, reducing the outstanding supply and the series’ backing counter by the exact same amount.
4

Collateral Released

The corresponding escrowed assets are transferred directly to the caller’s wallet on a 1:1 basis. No intermediary touches the funds.

​
Checking Your Claim Token Balance

Claim tokens are queryable through any standard ERC-20 interface. You can check your balance programmatically using the token’s contract address and a standard balanceOf call: 
import { ethers } from "ethers";

const claimToken = new ethers.Contract(CLAIM_TOKEN_ADDRESS, ERC20_ABI, provider);
const balance = await claimToken.balanceOf(walletAddress);

console.log(`Claim token balance: ${ethers.formatUnits(balance, await claimToken.decimals())}`);
You can add claim tokens to any ERC-20-compatible wallet by importing the token’s contract address. The address uniquely identifies which series the claims represent, so you can verify the underlying asset and unlock time before adding it.