In a bold move to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto, Ondo Finance and Pantera Capital are allocating $250 million toward real-world asset (RWA) investments, Axios reported this week.
In a bold move to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto, Ondo Finance and Pantera Capital are allocating $250 million toward real-world asset (RWA) investments, Axios reported this week.The capital will target both equity stakes and digital project tokens, aiming to bring traditional securities — such as stocks, bonds, and ETFs — onto the blockchain. The investment is part of a growing effort to offer users round-the-clock access to tokenized financial instruments, breaking away from the limited hours of legacy market infrastructure.
Ondo has already laid the groundwork for this vision, having introduced an onchain platform that allows exposure to U.S. securities. The new capital infusion will significantly scale up those efforts, particularly as demand grows for seamless access to RWAs through blockchain technology.
“What we’re really asking is why anyone would still hold their assets in a brokerage account when they could have them onchain,” said Ian De Bode, Chief Strategy Officer at Ondo.
The announcement comes amid a broader industry push to tokenize traditional assets. Robinhood, for example, recently began offering EU users access to derivatives mimicking shares of companies like OpenAI and SpaceX — though these offerings have stirred controversy for not representing actual shares. OpenAI has publicly distanced itself from the initiative.
The race to tokenize equities is intensifying, with players like Injective, Plume Network, Republic, and Backed all building solutions for onchain trading of RWAs. Major exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken are also eyeing the market, with ambitions to bring tokenized shares of firms like Tesla and Apple to retail users.
As more capital floods into this corner of crypto, the distinction between traditional and digital finance continues to blur — ushering in a new era where assets could be available to trade 24/7, anywhere in the world.
