Ondo Finance has launched Ondo Private Markets, a new platform that gives eligible non-U.S. investors tokenized exposure to private companies before they go public.
The service officially launched on Oct. 6 and is designed to bring private-market investing onto blockchain infrastructure, with tokenized notes that can be held in self-custody wallets or traded on secondary markets around the clock.
The first product will provide exposure to an unnamed pre-IPO artificial intelligence company, with secondary trading expected to begin during the week of Oct. 6.
Importantly, investors will not receive actual shares in the private company. Instead, they will hold tokenized notes whose economic value is linked to the performance of the referenced company.
- Ondo Private Markets gives eligible non-U.S. investors tokenized exposure to private companies.
- The first product references an unnamed pre-IPO AI company.
- Secondary trading is expected to begin during the week of Oct. 6.
- Investors receive tokenized notes rather than direct company shares.
- The notes do not provide voting rights or shareholder ownership.
- Eligible holders can trade the notes 24/7 or keep them in self-custody wallets.
- Ondo plans to add exposure to companies in robotics, cybersecurity, biotech, infrastructure, defense, energy, and space.
The new platform expands Ondo’s existing tokenized securities business, which already includes products linked to publicly traded stocks, exchange-traded funds, and U.S. Treasuries.
Ondo Private Markets takes the same broader tokenization idea into private companies, where investment access has traditionally been more limited.
Ondo Private Markets starts with a pre-IPO AI company
Ondo’s first private-market product will track the economic value of a private artificial intelligence company’s common shares.
The company has not revealed the identity of the AI business.
Instead, Ondo has described it only as a leading pre-IPO AI company.
Secondary-market trading in the tokenized note is expected to begin during the week of Oct. 6.
Eligible investors will be able to hold the token in their own wallets or trade it through supported secondary markets.
This means holders will not necessarily have to wait for the underlying company to complete an initial public offering before exiting their position.
Investors can trade before an IPO
Traditional private-company investments can be difficult to sell.
Investors may need to wait for an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or another liquidity event before they can realize their investment.
Ondo is attempting to create a more flexible structure.
Its tokenized notes can potentially be bought and sold on secondary markets before the referenced company reaches a qualifying liquidity event.
However, 24/7 trading availability does not guarantee deep liquidity.
Investors will still need willing buyers and sellers.
If trading activity is limited, holders may have difficulty exiting large positions at their preferred price.
Tokenized notes can be held in self-custody
Ondo says eligible investors will be able to hold Private Markets tokens directly in self-custody wallets.
That gives users more control over the assets compared with structures where securities remain entirely inside a centralized brokerage platform.
The company also describes the tokens as transferable and composable.
In theory, this could allow supported decentralized finance applications to integrate the assets.
However, Ondo has not yet published a complete list of exchanges, secondary trading venues, or DeFi protocols that will support the first private-market token.
The practical level of interoperability will therefore depend on future integrations.
24/7 trading does not mean unrestricted access
Ondo Acting CEO and President Ian De Bode described the new product as bringing private-company exposure to “24/7 trading on permissionless rails.”
However, that description does not mean anyone in the world can purchase the tokens.
Eligibility and geographic restrictions still apply.
The initial products are intended for qualified non-U.S. investors in permitted jurisdictions.
Investors must therefore distinguish between open blockchain infrastructure and legally unrestricted investment access.
The technology may operate continuously, while the securities remain subject to regulatory rules.
The tokens do not represent actual company shares
One of the most important parts of Ondo Private Markets is its legal structure.
The tokenized instruments are not shares in the private companies they reference.
Holders do not become shareholders of the underlying business.
They do not receive voting rights.
They do not gain an ownership stake or other rights normally associated with holding company equity.
Instead, the tokens represent obligations issued under a separate legal structure.
Their value is linked to the economic performance of the referenced company’s common shares.
How the payout works
Ondo says each private-market note will be linked to the per-share value realized by the referenced company at a qualifying liquidity event.
A qualifying event could include an IPO or another transaction covered under the legal terms of the individual instrument.
This means investors are effectively gaining economic exposure to the company’s valuation without directly owning its shares.
The exact payout formula may vary depending on the product’s legal terms.
Ondo has not publicly disclosed the full payout formula or the issuer of the first AI-linked note.
Eligible customers are expected to receive formal offering documents before investing.
These documents include Token Terms, a Subscription Agreement, and relevant risk disclosures.
Economic exposure and equity ownership are different
The distinction between tokenized exposure and direct ownership has become increasingly important as more platforms create blockchain-based products linked to private companies.
An investor holding a token tied to a private company may benefit economically if the referenced company’s value rises.
However, that does not mean the investor owns shares issued by the company itself.
This distinction affects voting rights, corporate information, legal protections, and the relationship between the investor and the underlying company.
Private businesses also generally publish less financial information than publicly listed companies.
That can make valuation more difficult for token holders.
Private-company tokens have already created controversy
The issue gained attention in 2025 when Robinhood introduced tokens linked to OpenAI.
OpenAI later clarified that the tokens were not OpenAI equity and said it had not approved an equity transfer related to the product.
That episode highlighted the potential confusion between products that track the economic value of a private company and actual ownership of its shares.
Ondo is making the distinction explicit in its launch materials.
Its Private Markets tokens provide economic exposure only.
Ondo has also not disclosed whether the unnamed AI company referenced by its first product has approved, endorsed, or participated in the offering.
U.S. investors are excluded from the initial product
Ondo Private Markets is not being launched as an unrestricted global offering.
The initial tokens are available only to eligible non-U.S. persons in permitted jurisdictions.
The securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933.
As a result, they cannot generally be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons unless a valid registration or exemption applies.
People placing orders from within the United States are prohibited from subscribing for, purchasing, or redeeming the products under the launch terms.
The same restrictions apply to anyone acting for the account or benefit of a U.S. person.
Ondo has a separate regulated U.S. securities business
The Private Markets product is separate from Ondo’s U.S.-regulated securities operations.
In July, Ondo announced that its SEC-registered broker-dealer subsidiary, Oasis Pro Markets, had received FINRA authorizations covering a range of tokenized securities activities.
Those permissions included corporate equities, ETFs, mutual funds, index products, IPO securities, and private placements.
That business operates under U.S. securities regulation.
Ondo Private Markets is being introduced through a different structure aimed at eligible investors outside the United States.
This allows Ondo to expand its tokenized securities offering while maintaining different regulatory frameworks for different markets.
Ondo is expanding beyond public stocks and ETFs
The new private-market platform builds on Ondo Stocks, the company’s existing tokenized securities business.
Ondo currently lists more than 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs.
The platform has approximately $1.28 billion in total value locked at the latest reported reading.
Ondo Stocks operates across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana, subject to regional restrictions.
The public-stock products differ structurally from the new private-market notes.
Ondo says its existing tokenized stock products are backed by securities and cash held through U.S. broker-dealers.
An independent verification agent checks the backing.
Private Markets uses a different approach.
Instead of directly representing backed public securities, the product offers contractual notes linked to the economic performance of a private company.
Ondo Stocks has already passed $1 billion in TVL
Ondo Stocks crossed $1 billion in total value locked in May, less than eight months after launch.
At the time, Ondo said the platform had processed approximately $18 billion in cumulative trading volume.
The company also claimed more than 70% of the tokenized-equity issuer market based on RWA.xyz data.
The catalog has continued expanding.
The number of tokenized assets increased from roughly 260 to more than 450.
By September, Ondo said cumulative trading volume across the platform had surpassed $26 billion after Ondo Stocks became available through NEAR Intents.
That growth gives Ondo an established tokenized-securities infrastructure as it moves into private markets.
Why private markets are an attractive tokenization target
Private-company investing has traditionally been less accessible than investing in listed stocks.
Shares are often held by founders, employees, venture capital firms, private equity investors, or accredited investors.
Secondary markets can also be fragmented and difficult to access.
Tokenization could potentially make some of those economic exposures easier to trade.
A blockchain-based note can operate continuously and move between supported wallets without depending on traditional market hours.
That does not eliminate legal restrictions, but it can change how the investment itself is transferred.
24/7 markets could improve flexibility
One of the most significant features of Ondo Private Markets is around-the-clock secondary trading.
Traditional private securities can have long settlement cycles and limited opportunities for liquidity.
Blockchain-based instruments can potentially trade at any time.
For investors, that could make private-market exposure more flexible.
However, always-open markets also introduce new risks.
Prices may move when traditional financial markets are closed.
Liquidity may vary significantly during different hours.
The tokenized note could also trade at a premium or discount relative to estimates of the underlying company’s private-market value.
Valuing a private company remains difficult
Tokenization does not solve one of the biggest challenges in private investing: limited information.
Public companies are required to release detailed financial disclosures.
Private companies generally provide far less information to the public.
That can make it difficult for investors to determine whether a tokenized note is trading at a fair price.
The underlying private company may also complete new funding rounds at different valuations.
Employee share sales, secondary transactions, and changes in investor sentiment can all influence perceived value before an IPO.
Investors therefore need to understand that continuous trading does not necessarily mean continuous transparent price discovery.
Future products will extend beyond artificial intelligence
Ondo plans to expand Private Markets well beyond its first AI-linked product.
The company has identified robotics, cybersecurity, biotechnology, and infrastructure as future areas of interest.
Its announcement also mentions defense, energy, and space.
These industries include some of the most valuable and closely followed private companies globally.
However, Ondo has not named which companies will be included.
No formal launch dates have been disclosed for the additional products either.
The first AI-linked note therefore serves as the initial test of the model.
Tokenized private markets are becoming more competitive
Ondo is not the only company exploring tokenized exposure to private securities.
Banks, exchanges, fintech companies, and crypto platforms are increasingly experimenting with blockchain-based securities infrastructure.
Citi has reportedly been developing tokenized access to private-company shares.
Major financial institutions are also working on tokenized settlement, custody, and trading infrastructure.
As this sector expands, the differences between direct shares, depositary structures, derivatives, notes, and other forms of synthetic exposure will become increasingly important.
Two products tied to the same private company may provide very different legal rights.
Investors need to understand what they actually own
For users considering Ondo Private Markets, the most important question is not simply which company the token tracks.
It is what the token legally represents.
Ondo’s launch materials repeatedly emphasize that holders receive economic exposure rather than direct equity.
That means investors should review the product’s terms carefully.
Important details include the issuer of the note, payout formula, qualifying liquidity events, transfer restrictions, redemption terms, and counterparty risk.
The risk profile can be very different from owning the referenced company’s common stock.
ONDO price remains under pressure
The launch has not produced an obvious standalone rally in ONDO.
CoinGecko showed ONDO trading near $0.49 at the latest reading.
The token was down roughly 2.1% over 24 hours and around 6% over the previous seven days.
Those movements do not establish a direct relationship between the launch of Ondo Private Markets and ONDO’s market price.
Product growth and token price can move independently, particularly over short periods.
What comes next for Ondo Private Markets?
The first important milestone will be the beginning of secondary trading for the AI-linked product.
Investors will be able to observe whether the market develops meaningful liquidity and whether buyers are willing to trade the tokenized note actively.
Other important questions remain unanswered.
Ondo has not named the underlying AI company.
It has not announced which trading platforms or DeFi applications will initially support the note.
The company also has not published a timetable for the additional robotics, cybersecurity, biotech, infrastructure, defense, energy, and space products.
Those details will determine how quickly Ondo Private Markets can grow beyond its first offering.
For now, the launch represents another major step in the effort to bring traditional and private securities onto public blockchain infrastructure.
The key distinction remains clear: Ondo Private Markets gives eligible investors tokenized economic exposure to private companies, but it does not give them direct ownership of those companies’ shares.
