Ondo Finance Launches Ondo Chain

Ondo Finance, a tokenized real-world asset issuer, announced the launch of a new Layer 1 blockchain called Ondo Chain on Thursday. The primary goal of Ondo Chain is to accelerate the creation of institutional-grade financial markets on-chain.

According to a press release seen by The Block, Ondo Chain will blend the security and compliance features typical of permissioned blockchains favored by financial institutions with the accessibility and openness of public chains like Ethereum. Several institutions, including Franklin Templeton, Wellington Management, and WisdomTree, will join the Ondo Ecosystem and provide guidance on the design of Ondo Chain.

CEO Nathan Allman noted, “Financial markets are overdue for an upgrade. Ondo Chain is designed to meet the highest institutional standards while remaining open for developers and innovators. It tightly couples on-chain and off-chain infrastructure, reducing cost, enhancing security, and ultimately enabling a better user experience.”

Permissioned validators will be responsible for verifying transactions and maintaining accurate, up-to-date data, such as asset prices and token backing. Key features will include staking tokenized real-world assets for network security and native omnichain bridging for smooth asset transfers between Ondo Chain and other supported networks.

In addition to Ondo Chain, Ondo Finance launched Ondo Global Markets, a platform aimed at providing on-chain exposure to stocks, bonds, and exchange-traded funds. Ondo stated, “What stablecoins did for dollars, Ondo Global Markets will do for securities.” This tokenization platform will enable exposure to over 1,000 NYSE- and Nasdaq-listed securities, including fixed-income ETFs and individual stocks.

As per DefiLlama data, Ondo Finance currently has a total value locked exceeding $653 million.