Ondo launches onchain private-company exposure, starting with AI

Ondo Finance announced on Tuesday its plans to bring private-company exposure onchain, starting with a pre-IPO artificial intelligence company whose tokenized notes are expected to begin secondary-market trading this week.

Dubbed Ondo Private Markets, the platform will offer tokenized notes tied to the per-share value of selected private companies at qualifying liquidity events, the company said in a statement. The notes are freely transferable and composable onchain, meaning eligible investors can enter, exit, or adjust positions around the clock. 

Ondo clarified that the notes are not shares in the underlying companies and do not confer ownership or shareholder rights. Instead, they are obligations of the issuer and are available only to eligible non-U.S. investors in permitted jurisdictions.

"In the US, the majority of the investment options accessible for retail are public companies, yet 87% of companies with over $100m in revenue are private," Ondo Finance Acting CEO and President Ian De Bode said. "Ondo Private Markets is built to change that."

The first market is expected to launch this week with permissionless 24/7 trading on secondary markets, with robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure companies expected to follow, according to the statement.

The launch extends Ondo’s broader push into tokenized financial assets. In July, the company partnered with Japan’s SBI Holdings to tokenize Japanese equities through Ondo Global Markets, with SBI planning to distribute Ondo products across its network and use its JPYSC stablecoin for settlement and collateral.

Ondo said its tokenized stocks and Treasurys platforms together have $3.7 billion in total value locked and more than 1 million cumulative holders.

Meanwhile, tokenized equities have exceeded $42 billion in market capitalization, representing about 35% of the broader $121 billion tokenized-asset market, according to The Block’s data.