$3.4 Billion RWA Giant Abandons Its Own Chain: A New Network for Wall Street 2.0
Ondo Finance, a leading name in the real-world asset (RWA) sector, has canceled its traditional blockchain project and introduced Ondo Network, a hybrid trading network designed to meet the speed and privacy expectations of institutional investors.
Having reached a massive $3.4 billion in assets under management, Ondo Finance (ONDO) announced that it has abandoned its Layer-1 blockchain project, Ondo Chain, which was first announced in February 2025. The company concluded that the transaction speed and data privacy required by institutional finance could not be fully provided by a standard blockchain structure. With this strategic pivot, Ondo Network aims to merge traditional capital markets with modern blockchain infrastructure in line with its “Wall Street 2.0” vision.
As one of the sector’s largest issuers, Ondo currently manages $2.6 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasury products and approximately $850 million in tokenized equities. The newly developed network operates by separating the execution and settlement processes. In this system, buy and sell orders are matched on a private network for speed and privacy, while final asset transfers are recorded on public blockchains. This allows institutional actors to benefit from blockchain technology without exposing their strategies to competitors.
Ondo Network and FINRA Approval in Institutional Finance
The first concrete application of the new network, Ondo Perps, will serve as a perpetual futures platform where tokenized assets can be used as collateral. Furthermore, the FINRA approval received by the company’s broker-dealer unit last week establishes a legal foundation by granting the authority to launch regulated markets and services for tokenized securities. This approval is seen as a critical trust threshold for large-scale investors seeking a regulation-compliant trading environment.
Planned to support spot markets, lending, and structured financial products in the future, Ondo Network aims to go beyond being just an asset issuer to offer a comprehensive settlement infrastructure. This next-generation blockchain-based network is set to fundamentally change the operation of the traditional financial world with 24-hour continuous trading and instant settlement capabilities.