Deng Tong, Jinse Finance
On December 9, 2025, Ondo Finance announced: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded its confidential investigation of Ondo with no charges filed. “The purpose of the investigation was to examine whether Ondo’s tokenization of certain real-world assets complies with federal securities laws, and whether the ONDO token is considered a security.”
1. Original Ondo Finance Blog Post
A Major Step Forward for Tokenized Securities in the U.S.
Ondo Finance has received official notice that a multi-year, confidential investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—initiated during the Biden administration and involving rigorous scrutiny of digital asset companies—has concluded with no charges brought.
The investigation aimed to assess whether Ondo’s tokenization of certain real-world assets was compliant with federal securities laws, and whether the ONDO token constituted a security. Ondo fully cooperated throughout the process. We have always believed that regulated, transparent tokenization models like Ondo’s not only align with investor protection principles but also strengthen them.
This is a significant milestone not only for Ondo, but for the entire tokenization industry.
When the investigation began in 2024, the regulatory climate for digital assets in the U.S. was cautious, chaotic, and at times overzealous in enforcement. Against this backdrop, Ondo:
- Was the first and largest tokenization platform for U.S. Treasuries;
- Was one of the few companies focused on large-scale tokenization of publicly listed equities;
- Rapidly gained favor with global investors.
Early movers and successful companies naturally attract scrutiny.
While crypto exchanges were collapsing and speculative tokens dominated policy debates, Ondo was building practical, user-friendly, and regulated financial products on public blockchains. As a result, these innovators—dedicated to developing the safest assets in traditional finance—found themselves swept up in broader enforcement actions.
Ondo’s growth and leadership in the emerging tokenization space made us a focus of attention, but not a legitimate target for investigation. Now that the investigation has ended, we will continue to uphold our principles, committed to innovation, compliance, safety, and investor protection.
Shifting Washington: A Clearer Path for Tokenized Securities
This decision also reflects a broader shift in U.S. policy.
Regulators are reassessing Biden-era digital asset policies. Washington has begun to reverse or soften some of the previous administration’s aggressive measures, recognizing that innovation and investor protection are not mutually exclusive.
Tokenization is now officially on the SEC’s agenda. The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee is evaluating how tokenization could revolutionize the issuance, trading, and settlement of publicly listed equities—a marked shift from the SEC’s enforcement-first stance in recent years.
The market has spoken: adoption of tokenization technology is accelerating. U.S. Treasury tokenization has become one of the fastest-growing on-chain asset classes, and newly launched tokenized equities are also showing strong momentum.
U.S. infrastructure is evolving to support tokenization. Ondo recently acquired Oasis Pro, obtaining broker-dealer, Alternative Trading System (ATS), and transfer agent licenses, giving us a fully regulated operational foundation for tokenized securities in the U.S.
The resolution of the SEC investigation marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for Ondo. In short, the time is ripe for tokenized securities to become a core component of U.S. capital markets. The future of global finance—including U.S. capital markets—is moving on-chain, and Ondo will lead this transformation.
What’s next? On February 3, 2026, we will share the next phase of our roadmap at the Ondo Summit in New York, bringing together leading regulators, policymakers, and executives from traditional finance to outline our vision for a new era of on-chain finance.
2. Ondo Development Overview
On July 27, 2021, Ondo Finance officially launched. Founded by Nathan Allman and Pinku Suran, Ondo aims to “accelerate the adoption of DeFi among mainstream investors by enabling granular risk trading.” The protocol went live on launch day, offering four vaults at inception. Ondo’s goal is to “bring institutional-grade financial products and services to a broad user base,” allowing ordinary users to access returns and liquidity from traditional financial assets—such as U.S. Treasuries, money market funds, bonds, stocks/ETFs—via tokenization.
Ondo’s development trajectory clearly shows its strategic upgrade from DeFi infrastructure provider to a core RWA player, with the evolution of its two main versions serving as a microcosm of the industry’s transformation.
Ondo V1: Focused on DeFi Infrastructure
Ondo V1 launched on Ethereum as the protocol’s first implementation, with vaults and Liquidity as a Service (LaaS) as its core products. Key milestones during this period include:
- November 2021: Ondo partnered with Fei Protocol to launch Liquidity as a Service (LaaS), aiming to replace traditional liquidity mining models. LaaS allowed projects to increase token liquidity on decentralized exchanges. Projects could deposit tokens into Ondo’s liquidity vaults, which Fei would match with equivalent value in FEI stablecoins. Ondo expanded its LaaS service through the following collaborations:
- December 2021: Ondo partnered with Frax Finance, expanding LaaS as Frax used its FRAX stablecoin to provide liquidity for tokens like AMP.
- May 2022: Ondo partnered with Angle Protocol, further expanding LaaS as Angle provided its agEUR stablecoin for tokens like PAL.
Notably, Ondo V1 ceased service as of March 5, 2024, with users only able to withdraw funds thereafter.
Ondo V2: Becoming a Core RWA Player
Ondo V2 officially launched in January 2023 as the protocol’s second implementation. Key milestones during this period include:
- January 2023: Ondo announced three tokens backed by U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds. Although OSTB and OHYG have ceased issuance, the Ondo U.S. Government Bond Fund (OUSG) remains the most widely circulated token.
- January 2023: Ondo announced the launch of Flux Finance (Flux) and initiated the Ondo DAO to govern Flux. Flux officially launched in February 2023, with the first ONDO token proposals approved.
- April 2023: Ondo announced the Ondo Money Market Fund (OMMF).
- August 2023: Ondo launched Ondo USD Yield (USDY).
- November 2023: Ondo Bridge went live.
- January 2024: The Ondo Foundation proposed lifting the ONDO token’s “global lock.” The proposal included official details on ONDO token distribution, use, and future unlock plans. Its approval marked the “public launch” of the ONDO token.
- January 2024: The Ondo Foundation announced the Ondo Points Program, launching the “first wave” later that month.
- February 2024: Ondo announced plans for Ondo Global Markets (Ondo GM), a platform enabling users to access traditional securities on-chain via tokenization.
In March 2024, Ondo Finance launched 24/7/365 instant minting and redemption for OUSG, with a significant portion of OUSG assets moved to BlackRock’s BUIDL Treasury Fund.
In February 2025, Ondo Global Markets officially launched. The announcement stated that tokens issued by Ondo GM would be fully backed 1:1 by underlying assets.
In March 2025, TVL reached $1 billion, attributed to a compliance-first client base, partnership with BitGo, and U.S.-compliant smart contracts.
In June 2025, the team announced the formation of the Global Markets Alliance to “coordinate industry standards and promote interoperability for tokenized securities,” with founding members including Solana Foundation, Bitget Wallet, Jupiter, Trust Wallet, Rainbow Wallet, BitGo, Fireblocks, 1inch, and Alpaca.
In October 2025, Ondo submitted a letter to the SEC proposing amendments to Nasdaq’s rules for trading tokenized securities.
3. The Secret to Ondo’s Success: Seizing Every Market Opportunity
Reviewing the timeline above, from DeFi to RWA and now the conclusion of the SEC investigation, Ondo has capitalized on every market opportunity—perhaps the secret to its sustained attention and development.
In June 2020, “DeFi Summer” exploded as Compound launched its governance token COMP and introduced liquidity mining—users who lent or borrowed on Compound received COMP rewards. This innovation quickly ignited market enthusiasm and was the key catalyst for DeFi Summer. But by late 2021, liquidity mining’s unsustainability became apparent: continued mining led to token inflation, and discontinuation led to liquidity drying up.
Ondo identified these pain points and launched “Liquidity as a Service”: projects, based on their own needs and flexible timeframes, deposit their native tokens into dedicated Ondo liquidity pools; Ondo matches these tokens with equivalent assets from partners like Frax, Fei, and Angle, creating compliant and balanced liquidity pairs. These pairs are deployed to specified decentralized exchanges, ensuring smooth trading of the project’s tokens. Upon contract expiration, Ondo withdraws the liquidity and mining profits from the exchange, first returning assets to the project, then paying agreed fixed interest to partners, with any remaining profits also returned to the project.
At this stage, Ondo was a DeFi infrastructure provider, solving the sustainability issues of liquidity mining.
In 2022, Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST and native token LUNA suffered a death spiral crash, triggering an overnight DeFi trust crisis. Against this backdrop, Ondo shifted its focus to the rapidly emerging and growing RWA sector.
In 2023, Ondo V2 launched, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries (OUSG) as its core product. OUSG’s underlying asset is BlackRock’s iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF, ensuring both security and liquidity, and giving OUSG a low-risk profile. OUSG can be integrated with DeFi protocols like Flux Finance that support compliant, permissioned assets, allowing investors to transfer ownership and conduct lending and other financial activities via compliant smart contracts. OUSG’s launch proved the feasibility of tokenizing low-risk traditional financial assets.
Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC repeatedly targeted the crypto market, resulting in a regulatory “winter” two years ago. In October 2023, the SEC began investigating Ondo, focusing on whether the tokenization of U.S. Treasury products complied with securities laws, and whether the ONDO token should be classified as a security. This investigation lasted two years.
On October 6, 2025, Ondo Finance completed the acquisition of Oasis Pro, an SEC-licensed broker, to advance Ondo’s tokenized securities business within a compliance framework. On December 6, ONDO submitted its tokenized securities roadmap to the SEC, advocating support for multiple asset ownership models and broader on-chain integration to help the U.S. maintain its lead in the tokenization revolution.
Following these compliance efforts, Ondo faced no charges—an important regulatory win for the crypto industry.
Conclusion
From DeFi to RWA to compliance, Ondo has accurately grasped industry trends and leveraged every opportunity. Now, with the SEC investigation concluded, Ondo is truly unshackled. Where Ondo will set its sights in the future may be revealed at the New York Summit in February 2026.
