Involvement from Franklin Templeton, Wellington Management, WisdomTree, McKinsey, and Others Reflects Growing Institutional Interest in Blockchain and Tokenization
Ondo Finance, a leader in blockchain-based financial innovation, today unveiled a suite of infrastructure products designed to bring capital markets onchain, bringing the transparency, efficiency, and accessibility enabled by blockchain technology to institutional-grade finance. At the first-ever Ondo Summit in New York City, Ondo provided details on two key pillars of this strategy: Ondo Global Markets, a tokenization platform designed to bring publicly traded securities onchain, and Ondo Chain, a new "Layer 1" blockchain, purpose-built to support institutional-grade onchain financial markets.
"Financial markets are overdue for an upgrade," said Nathan Allman, CEO of Ondo Finance. "Today's financial systems are plagued by high fees, limited access, and operational inefficiencies. At Ondo, we are addressing these challenges head-on by creating a unified ecosystem that bridges the best of traditional finance with the capabilities of blockchain technology."
Ondo Global Markets: Seamless Access to Tokenized Securities
Ondo Global Markets, announced as a cornerstone of this strategy, is a tokenization platform designed to bring publicly traded securities onchain. The platform will enable investors outside the U.S. to gain onchain exposure to thousands of U.S. publicly traded securities, including stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. These tokens will be accessible 24/7 and are designed to have the same liquidity as the underlying security. Investors will be able to borrow against their token holdings on terms comparable to those in traditional financial markets. At launch, Global Markets will offer tokenized exposure to many of the most widely traded stocks such as Apple and Tesla, and a variety of popular ETFs and mutual funds from leading asset managers such as Fidelity and BlackRock.
"Just as stablecoins transformed access to US dollars by addressing challenges like high fees, limited availability, and transfer frictions, Ondo GM applies these same principles to capital markets," Allman added. "What stablecoins did for dollars, Ondo GM will do for securities."
Ondo Chain: The L1 Infrastructure for Onchain Financial Markets
Ondo Global Markets itself will be powered by Ondo Chain, a newly announced Layer 1 blockchain that is designed to accelerate the creation of institutional-grade financial markets onchain. Ondo Chain will combine the security and compliance features of the types of permissioned blockchains often used by financial institutions with the openness and accessibility of public chains like Ethereum. Validators responsible for confirming transactions will be permissioned. In addition to confirming blockchain transactions, these validators will also help ensure that other data important to well-functioning financial markets such as asset prices and proof that tokens are adequately backed by their underlying assets are accurate and up-to-date. Other key features include the ability to stake tokenized real-world assets to ensure network security and native omnichain bridging, allowing tokenized assets to move seamlessly between Ondo Chain and other supported chains.
"Ondo Chain is designed to meet the highest institutional standards while remaining open for developers and innovators," said Allman. "It tightly couples onchain and offchain infrastructure, reducing cost, enhancing security, and ultimately enabling a better user experience. For these reasons, we anticipate Ondo Chain becoming the hub for the DeFi ecosystem centered on tokenized assets."
Industry Involvement Continues to Grow
The Ondo Summit also highlights the growing interest in tokenization from the traditional financial industry. Today, Ondo announced that several leading institutions including Franklin Templeton, Wellington Management, WisdomTree, Google Cloud, ABN Amro, Aon, and McKinsey are joining the Ondo Ecosystem and will advise on the design of Ondo Chain. The Ondo Ecosystem already includes notable industry leaders such as BlackRock, PayPal and Morgan Stanley.
"We're delighted to have these industry leaders involved to help ensure that Ondo Chain meets the stringent requirements of institutional investors," said Ian De Bode, Ondo Finance's Chief Strategy Officer. "Their involvement underscores our commitment to building truly institutional-grade infrastructure that lays the groundwork to accelerate the formation of institutional-grade financial markets onchain."
This trend is further bolstered by the sessions at today's Ondo Summit event, with presenters including BlackRock, Fidelity, BNY Mellon, and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Presenters also include Caroline Pham, acting head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and head of the digital asset subcommittee; and Patrick McHenry, former chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
The Trend Towards Tokenization
Ondo Global Markets and Ondo Chain are designed to work together to make real-world assets globally accessible and usable in decentralized finance. Ondo Global Markets enables the seamless tokenization of publicly traded assets, while Ondo Chain is designed to provide the institutional-grade infrastructure to enable those assets to be used at scale. Together, they lay the foundations for a more inclusive and efficient financial system.
"We believe that the movement of capital markets onchain will bring tremendous benefits to investors around the world," said Allman. "Together Ondo Global Markets and Ondo Chain create the foundational infrastructure that paves the way for trillions of dollars in value to transition onchain and lays the foundations for the global adoption of tokenized assets."
About Ondo Finance
Ondo is a blockchain technology company. Its mission is to accelerate the transition to an open economy by building the platforms, assets, and infrastructure that bring financial markets onchain. For more information, visit https://ondo.finance
Ondo Global Markets ("GM") and Ondo Chain have not launched. GM tokenized assets ("GM Assets") will be backed by, and redeemable for the U.S. dollar-denominated value of, applicable securities; however, GM Assets and the underlying securities are distinct assets with their own respective performance and risk profiles. Upon launch, GM Assets will not be, and thereafter may not be, registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Act") or pursuant to securities laws of any other jurisdiction. GM Assets shall not be offered, sold or otherwise transferred in the US or to US persons unless registered under the Act or an exemption or exclusion from the registration requirements thereof is available. Upon launch, the issuers of GM Assets will not be, and thereafter may not be, registered as investment companies under the US Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. Nothing herein constitutes any offer to sell, or any solicitation of an offer to buy, any GM Assets. Acquiring GM Assets will involve risks. A holder of GM Assets may incur losses, including total loss of their purchase price. Past performance will not be an indication of future results. Additional terms and conditions will apply.
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Contacts:
Ali Adkins
ondo@wachsman.com
