Ondo Finance, the third-largest project dealing with real-world assets and boasting nearly $200 million in tokenized securities, recently released new tokens on January 18.
On the first day of release, Ondo unlocked 14.3% of its native ONDO tokens, causing its market capitalization to surge to $1.66 billion, as reported by DEX Screener. Notably, popular exchanges such as ByBit, Gate.io, KuCoin, and even Coinbase have added ONDO to their lists of tradable assets.
Token holders of ONDO will wield governance powers, influencing decisions like adding or removing collateral on Flux Finance, a lending platform developed by the Ondo team. Flux enables users to lend stablecoins to qualified purchasers, who can then borrow against Ondo’s tokenized treasuries.
Ondo’s strategic approach caters to both crypto users and large institutions, offering products exclusive to qualified purchasers while simultaneously providing a permissionless protocol for DeFi enthusiasts. The ONDO token, governing the Ondo DAO, adds a unique crypto-native dimension to the project’s ecosystem.
With tokenized products valued at over $200 million, Ondo stands as a major player in the market. OUSG, its most valuable product, holds a market capitalization of $108.9 million and ranks as the third-largest tokenized Treasuries offering, representing an ETF for short-term U.S. Treasuries offered by BlackRock.
Having launched in January 2023, Ondo migrated to Solana last month. The recent proposal to unlock ONDO tokens from Ondo Finance, presented on Flux’s forum, has made these tokens transferable, creating a market for the assets.
A significant portion of the initial circulating supply of 1.4 billion tokens came from a raise via CoinList, a platform facilitating token sales, with 18,000 participants in the sale. Investors and team members, entitled to 45.9% of the tokens, face an additional 12-month lockup period followed by a four-year vesting period.
The remaining 52.1% of ONDO tokens are allocated for “ecosystem growth,” with potential uses listed in the Flux forum proposal, including initiatives like airdrops. The Ondo Foundation, tasked with expanding the Ondo ecosystem, has introduced a points system to reward users for actions such as participating in governance, aligning with the trend observed throughout 2023.
