Real-world asset tokenization leader Ondo Finance announced plans to launch its tokenized U.S. stock and exchange-traded fund trading platform on Solana blockchain in early 2026, marking a major expansion for the world's largest tokenized securities operator. The move will enable 24/7 trading of U.S. equities with near-instant settlement, bringing Wall Street liquidity directly to decentralized finance infrastructure.
Ondo Finance currently dominates the tokenized real-world asset sector with approximately $365 million in tokenized assets under management, according to data from RWA.xyz. The company's Solana integration follows its October 2025 expansion to BNB Chain, which opened access to 3.4 million daily active users, and comes amid explosive growth in the broader tokenized asset market.
"It's coming. The largest platform for tokenized stocks and ETFs is coming to Solana in early 2026. Wall Street liquidity meets internet capital markets," Ondo Finance declared in a December 15 announcement on social media.
Platform Capabilities and Market Position
Ondo Global Markets, the company's tokenized securities platform, currently offers more than 100 U.S. stocks and ETFs on Ethereum with plans to expand to over 1,000 assets. The platform enables qualifying investors in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and Latin America to mint and redeem tokenized versions of major U.S. securities including Apple, Tesla, and popular ETFs from Fidelity and BlackRock.
The tokenized assets provide exposure to the total economic return of underlying U.S. securities while offering blockchain's advantages: continuous trading outside traditional market hours, settlement in seconds rather than days, fractional ownership enabling access to expensive assets, cross-chain transferability through LayerZero integration, and permissionless composability with DeFi protocols.
Unlike traditional stock trading limited to exchange hours with T+1 settlement, Ondo's tokenized securities trade 24 hours per day, five days per week, with blockchain settlement occurring in seconds. When withdrawn to self-custodied wallets, the tokens can be traded on-chain at any time, providing true round-the-clock liquidity.
Regulatory Breakthrough
Ondo's expansion plans received significant validation when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission closed a confidential investigation into the company without filing charges. The multi-year probe, launched in 2024, examined whether Ondo's tokenization of real-world assets and its native ONDO token complied with federal securities laws.
The SEC's decision to close the investigation represents a pivotal moment for tokenized securities in the United States. It signals a broader regulatory shift under the Trump administration, with agencies reevaluating digital asset oversight and adding tokenization to formal policy agendas.
"The outcome signals a broader shift in Washington, with regulators re-evaluating digital-asset oversight and adding tokenization to the SEC's formal agenda," Ondo stated following the SEC announcement. The company emphasized it will continue pushing innovation, compliance, and investor protection as it expands operations.
Additionally, Ondo Global Markets secured approval from the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority to launch tokenized stocks and ETFs across the European Union and European Economic Area, enabling regulated on-chain exposure to U.S. markets for more than 500 million investors in 30 European countries.
Why Solana
Ondo's choice of Solana for its next major expansion reflects the network's technical advantages for high-frequency trading applications. Solana offers sub-second transaction finality, thousands of transactions per second throughput capacity, transaction costs under $0.01, and robust infrastructure supporting continuous uptime.
These characteristics make Solana particularly well-suited for tokenized securities trading, where users expect performance comparable to traditional financial platforms. The network's proven ability to handle sustained high transaction volumes without degradation positions it as ideal infrastructure for bringing Wall Street liquidity on-chain.
Ondo President Ian Debode emphasized the transformative potential: "2026 will be the year of tokenized stocks. A lot of people in traditional finance aren't prepared for what's coming." His comments suggest Ondo views tokenization as fundamentally reshaping capital markets rather than serving as mere incremental improvement.
Competitive Landscape
Ondo's dominance in tokenized securities faces growing competition from traditional finance and crypto-native players. Kraken, which recently acquired Backed Finance (the second-largest tokenized asset operator with $162 million in assets), expanded its xStocks platform to multiple blockchains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Tron, and Solana. The platform offers tokenized versions of Apple (AAPLx), Tesla (TSLAx), S&P 500 ETF (SPYx), and Nvidia (NVDAx) with 24/5 trading.
Robinhood made waves by launching over 200 tokenized U.S. stocks on Arbitrum for EU customers, including private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX—expanding tokenized equity access beyond publicly traded securities. Coinbase is actively seeking SEC approval to bring tokenized stocks to U.S. customers, potentially opening the massive domestic market.
Traditional finance giants are also entering the space. BlackRock is hiring seven senior digital asset roles to expand crypto ETF offerings and pursue tokenization initiatives, with particular focus on Asia-Pacific opportunities. The $10 trillion asset manager's involvement signals institutional validation of tokenized securities as core financial infrastructure rather than experimental technology.
Despite this competition, Ondo maintains significant advantages through its $365 million in existing tokenized assets, regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions, multi-chain infrastructure spanning 10 blockchains, partnerships with institutional liquidity providers, and integration with major crypto wallets including Trust Wallet (200+ million users), OKX Wallet, MEXC, Morpho, Ledger, and Bitget Wallet.
Infrastructure and Partnerships
Ondo's tokenized securities ecosystem relies on sophisticated infrastructure partnerships. Chainlink serves as the official oracle provider, supplying price feeds for 100+ tokenized equities and ETFs to ensure accurate cross-chain data. Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) standardizes institutional movements of tokenized assets across blockchains, with testing by Swift and DTCC.
LayerZero enables cross-chain transfers, allowing users to move tokenized assets seamlessly between Ethereum, BNB Chain, and eventually Solana without complex bridge operations. This interoperability is critical for maximizing liquidity and composability across DeFi ecosystems.
Block Street provides institutional-grade infrastructure for borrowing, shorting, and hedging tokenized securities, addressing sophisticated trading strategies that professional investors require. This partnership helps bridge the gap between DeFi capabilities and traditional finance expectations.
Trust Wallet's integration enables retail access without brokerage accounts, allowing users to hold and swap tokenized stocks directly in their wallets with liquidity supported through 1inch Swap API. This removes friction that has historically limited blockchain adoption among mainstream investors.
Market Growth and Projections
The broader tokenized real-world asset market has more than doubled since August 2025, approaching $700 million in total value locked excluding stablecoins. This explosive growth reflects accelerating institutional and retail adoption as regulatory clarity improves and infrastructure matures.
McKinsey projects the total tokenized market cap could reach $2 trillion by 2030, even excluding stablecoins. This estimate assumes continued regulatory progress, improved infrastructure, and growing institutional participation. Financial institutions with blockchain capabilities already in place will enjoy strategic advantages as tokenization becomes standard practice.
Ondo's early mover advantage and market leadership position the company to capture significant share of this growth. The combination of regulatory approvals, technical infrastructure, and established distribution channels creates substantial barriers to entry for competitors lacking similar resources.
State Street Partnership and SWEEP Fund
Beyond tokenized equities, Ondo is partnering with State Street and Galaxy Asset Management to launch the State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund (SWEEP) on Solana in early 2026. This tokenized liquidity fund will enable institutional cash management through blockchain rails, using PYUSD stablecoin to support continuous investor flows.
Ondo will seed SWEEP with $200 million and leverage its flagship tokenized fund OUSG (which maintains diversified portfolios of institutional tokenized U.S. Treasury funds) as anchor investor. The fund targets expansion to Stellar and Ethereum after initial Solana launch, facilitated by Chainlink cross-chain solutions.
SWEEP represents institutional validation of blockchain-based treasury management and cash operations. State Street's $4.1 trillion in assets under custody brings enormous credibility and distribution potential, while Galaxy's digital asset expertise ensures technical execution quality.
Ondo Chain Development
Earlier in 2025, Ondo announced development of Ondo Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed to accelerate creation of institutional-grade financial markets on-chain. While the company hasn't outlined plans to launch tokenized stocks on Ondo Chain yet, the dedicated blockchain infrastructure suggests long-term vision extending beyond multi-chain deployment to purpose-built financial settlement layers.
Ondo Chain's development reflects recognition that existing Layer 1 blockchains may not fully address institutional requirements around compliance, permissioning, settlement finality, and regulatory reporting. A purpose-built chain could offer customized features unavailable on general-purpose networks like Ethereum or Solana.
Real-World Asset Investment Initiative
In July 2025, Ondo and Pantera Capital unveiled plans to invest $250 million in real-world asset projects, aiming to accelerate convergence between traditional financial markets and digital asset infrastructure. This substantial capital commitment demonstrates conviction that tokenization represents fundamental transformation rather than speculative trend.
The investment initiative targets projects across the RWA value chain including asset origination and tokenization platforms, secondary market infrastructure and liquidity providers, compliance and regulatory technology, institutional custody and settlement solutions, and cross-chain interoperability protocols.
Technical Architecture
Ondo's tokenized securities are fully backed by actual U.S. stocks and ETFs held at U.S.-registered broker-dealers, with cash in transit appropriately secured. This structure ensures tokens represent genuine economic exposure to underlying assets rather than synthetic derivatives or unbacked promises.
The company acquired Oasis Pro earlier in 2025, gaining broker-dealer and transfer agent licenses from U.S. regulators. While these licenses don't enable U.S. customer access (due to different regulatory requirements for retail versus institutional offerings), they streamline Ondo's process for acquiring and custodying underlying assets backing tokenized securities.
When users mint tokenized stocks through Ondo Global Markets, the platform acquires corresponding shares through licensed broker-dealers and issues blockchain tokens representing ownership claims. Redemptions work in reverse, with tokens burned as underlying shares are sold and proceeds returned to users.
Access Restrictions and Compliance
Current regulations prevent U.S., UK, and EEA residents from accessing Ondo Global Markets' tokenized securities. These geographical restrictions reflect complex securities laws governing cross-border investment and tokenized asset offerings.
Non-U.S. qualified investors in Asia-Pacific, Europe (outside EEA), Africa, and Latin America can access the platform subject to know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering requirements. Verification processes ensure compliance with applicable securities regulations in users' jurisdictions.
The tokens themselves do not provide voting rights or direct ownership of underlying assets. Instead, they represent beneficial economic interest in securities held by broker-dealers on behalf of token holders. This structure navigates regulatory requirements while enabling blockchain-based transferability and composability.
Market Impact and Implications
Ondo's Solana launch will significantly expand retail and institutional access to U.S. securities markets for investors globally restricted by geography, minimum investment requirements, or trading hour limitations. A developer in Southeast Asia can hold fractional Tesla shares in a self-custodied wallet. A European trader can access S&P 500 exposure outside New York exchange hours. Latin American investors can participate in U.S. market returns without complex brokerage arrangements.
This democratization of financial access represents blockchain technology's most compelling use case—not replacing existing systems entirely, but extending access to populations previously excluded by cost, geography, or regulatory barriers.
The 24/7 trading capability fundamentally alters market dynamics. Price discovery becomes continuous rather than concentrated in daily trading sessions. Liquidity fragmentation across time zones decreases as global investors trade simultaneously. Arbitrage opportunities emerge between traditional exchanges and tokenized on-chain markets.
For Solana specifically, Ondo's launch brings significant real-world asset utility beyond speculative token trading and DeFi protocols. Tokenized equities provide genuine yield-bearing, economically productive assets that expand Solana's total value proposition. The platform could attract new user cohorts interested in traditional finance exposure through blockchain rails.
Challenges and Risks
Despite promising developments, tokenized securities face substantial challenges. Regulatory uncertainty persists across jurisdictions, with rules evolving faster than markets can adapt. A regulatory crackdown in major markets could severely impact adoption trajectories.
Liquidity fragmentation across multiple platforms and blockchains may prevent tokenized securities from achieving efficiency gains relative to centralized exchanges. Without sufficient liquidity, price discovery suffers and transaction costs increase.
Custody and security risks remain significant concerns. Smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle manipulation, bridge exploits, and private key compromises could result in catastrophic losses. While Ondo employs institutional-grade security practices, blockchain-based systems face attack vectors absent in traditional finance.
Tax treatment of tokenized securities varies by jurisdiction and remains unclear in many cases. Investors may face unexpected tax liabilities from token transfers, DeFi interactions, or cross-chain movements that would not occur with traditional stock ownership.
Looking Ahead
Ondo Finance's Solana expansion in early 2026 represents a milestone in blockchain's integration with traditional finance. By bringing established, regulated securities on-chain with institutional-grade infrastructure, Ondo is building bridges between legacy finance and decentralized systems.
The company's trajectory—$365 million in tokenized assets, regulatory approvals expanding globally, partnerships with State Street and other institutions, multi-chain deployment across leading blockchains—suggests tokenized securities are progressing from experimental concepts to mainstream financial products.
Whether 2026 proves "the year of tokenized stocks" as Ondo's leadership predicts depends on continued regulatory progress, infrastructure maturation, and user adoption. But the foundations are clearly being laid for a future where blockchain rails carry significant portions of global securities trading.
For Solana, Ondo's launch validates the network's positioning as infrastructure for institutional-grade financial applications. Combined with growing stablecoin adoption, DeFi protocols, and now tokenized securities, Solana is assembling a comprehensive financial services ecosystem on blockchain rails.
The convergence of traditional finance liquidity with blockchain technology's transparency, efficiency, and accessibility could reshape capital markets fundamentally. Ondo Finance is positioning itself at the center of this transformation, and Solana is providing the high-performance infrastructure making it possible.