> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.digitalasset.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Pause / Unpause

> Instantly suspend all non-registrar activity on an instrument to respond to incidents or operational holds, without disrupting registrar administration.

As digital assets move through complex operational and regulatory lifecycles, issuers occasionally need the ability to immediately halt activity on an instrument—whether to respond to a security incident, a regulatory hold, or an internal operational review. Relying on off-chain coordination to stop transactions in flight is too slow, and too easy to get wrong.

The **Registry App** provides a protocol-native pause control that lets the registrar instantly suspend all non-registrar interactions with an instrument, while retaining full ability to administer its configuration. Enforcement is applied consistently across every lifecycle workflow, so a paused instrument cannot be minted, transferred, burned, or allocated by anyone other than the registrar.

> [!NOTE]
>
> **The On-Chain Difference:** Unlike off-chain operational freezes that depend on manual coordination across systems, the DA Registry enforces the pause directly in the asset model. Every request, offer, allocation, and transfer is validated against the instrument's pause state *before* execution.

## Key Capabilities

By embedding the pause control directly into the asset model, the Registry App lets issuers respond to incidents immediately, without pausing their own ability to manage the instrument.

> [card] Instant, Ledger-Wide Halt
>
> Toggling the pause state immediately blocks every non-registrar interaction with the instrument, across both Token Standard V1 and V2 flows.

> [card] Deterministic Authorization
>
> Requests, offers, allocations, and transfers that violate the pause state fail automatically prior to execution, with no risk of operational bypass.

> [card] Audit-Ready Evidence
>
> Every pause, unpause, and related configuration change is recorded permanently on-ledger for an unalterable audit trail.

> [card] Uninterrupted Administration
>
> The registrar retains full control of the instrument while it is paused, including modifying unrelated configuration fields in the same call.

## Lifecycle Coverage

Pause enforcement is comprehensively integrated across the asset lifecycle, with narrow exceptions where the registrar itself is the counterparty:

| Operation | Enforcement Behavior |
| :- | :- |
| **Minting** | Rejects mint requests and offer acceptances unless the registrar itself is the holder. |
| **Burning** | Rejects burn requests and offer acceptances unless the registrar itself is the holder. |
| **Transfers & Allocations** | Intercepts two-step transfers, self-transfers, and allocation flows unless the registrar is the sender (or, for allocation acceptance, the receiver). |

> [!WARNING]
>
> **Scoped, Not Absolute:** Pausing is scoped to a single instrument—other instruments under the same registrar are unaffected—and the registrar is only exempt where it is itself the party being checked. A non-registrar counterparty is always blocked while the instrument is paused.