Real-world asset tokenization platform Ondo Finance said it will launch an institution-focused layer-1 blockchain for Wall Street firms to tokenize RWAs.
Ondo announced Ondo Chain on Feb. 6 during its inaugural New York summit. Chase Herro, co-founder of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial, reportedly told the summit that the crypto platform would create a “strategic reserve” with tokens it holds — including the Ondo (ONDO) token.
Development of Ondo Chain will be advised by Ondo’s existing members, namely BlackRock, PayPal and Morgan Stanley, and new members, including Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, Google Cloud, ABN Amro, Aon and McKinsey, Ondo Finance said.
Source: Ondo Finance
Ondo’s layer 1 aims to enable a myriad of use cases for institutions, including prime brokerage with a cross-collateralized margin for RWAs, staking tokenized RWAs and wealth management.
Ondo didn’t state when the layer 1 solution would launch.
The firm said Ondo Chain validators could stake RWAs to secure the network; however, they will run on a permissioned model to prevent MEV and front-running.
“This enhances investor protections and makes Ondo Chain suitable for institutions that need best execution guarantees.”
But anyone can issue tokens, develop apps, and participate, Ondo added.
Trump family’s WLF strengthens ties with Ondo
Ondo’s announcement comes as World Liberty Financial’s Herro revealed that the platform plans to create a strategic reserve with the tokens it holds, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 6.
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World Liberty’s token reserve would likely include the $470,000 worth of ONDO tokens it snapped up on Feb. 6, according to Arkham Intelligence data.
The platform had bought $270,000 worth of ONDO tokens on Dec. 15 amid a nearly $45 million flurry of token purchases at the time that included Ether (ETH) and Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC).
The Trump family’s crypto platform currency holds $35.4 million worth of various cryptocurrencies.
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