Swiss-based exchange-traded fund issuer 21Shares has taken a significant step towards launching a new product that will track the spot price of Ondo, the native token of decentralized finance protocol Ondo Finance. The company filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the “21Shares Ondo Trust,” which will directly hold ONDO tokens and monitor performance through the CME CF Ondo Finance-Dollar Reference Rate. Custody of the tokens will be provided by Coinbase, making it a passive investment vehicle with no speculation or leverage.
ONDO is the utility token of Ondo Chain, a layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain that focuses on institutional-grade financial markets and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). With a market capitalization of $3.5 billion and a circulating supply of 3.1 billion tokens out of a total of 10 billion, ONDO is currently valued at $1.12. Despite being down 48% from its all-time high of $2.14 in December, ONDO has garnered the support of notable backers like World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform associated with the Trump family.
In a strategic move earlier this month, Ondo Finance acquired SEC-registered broker-dealer Oasis Pro with plans to launch tokenized securities in collaboration with Pantera Capital. Oasis Pro is authorized by the SEC as an Alternative Trading System and transfer agent, making it a registered non-exchange trading venue capable of managing ownership of securities. This acquisition aligns with Ondo Chain’s goal of providing Wall Street firms with a platform to tokenize RWAs, a market that has seen significant growth this year, with a total value of nearly $25 billion tokenized on various platforms.