Ondo Finance has seen major changes over the past three months, with developments in leadership, technology, and tokenized real-world assets. Everything started off with the unexpected death of founder and CEO Nathan Allman on May 25, just 32 years old. The company didn’t share the cause. Ian De Bode, then president, stepped in to fill Nathan Allman’s position of the CEO, and the company said it planned to keep building on Allman’s vision.
But the shift at the top soon turned into a corporate dispute. Nathan Allman’s mother, Kathleen Allman, was named his estate’s representative in late June by a Hawaii probate court. The estate then challenged De Bode’s leadership. While the dispute moved closer to Delaware Chancery Court, Ondo changed up its blockchain strategy and kept expanding its tokenized asset business. The platform now makes up $3.61 billion of the $38.14 billion tokenized RWA market tracked by RWA.xyz, not counting stablecoins.
Leadership Dispute Unfolds as Ondo Changes Its Technology Strategy
The issue that Ondo faces is to figure out who really controls the company after Allman’s death. After Allman’s passing on May 25, De Bode took over as the CEO. However, his claim faced a pushback with Allman’s voting stake still tied up in the probate process. Kathleen Allman officially became the estate representative in late June.
The estate accused De Bode of naming himself CEO and sole director before probate wrapped up. On July 24, a new board led by Kathleen Allman voted to remove him from those roles. Now, three Delaware Chancery Court filings are asking a judge to decide who’s in charge. As of early August, it’s still unsolved.
All this happens while the company is switching old technology plans for new ones. On July 28, the company launched Ondo Network and scrapped its plans for the Ondo Chain Layer-1 blockchain. Ondo Network acts as an off-chain execution layer, using trusted hardware enclaves to match trades quickly and privately, while settlement stays on public blockchains like Ethereum.
According to Ondo, speed for executing trades is a bigger issue for institutions than settlement. Ondo Perps became the first app on the new network, aiming at perpetual futures and using tokenized equities and commodities for collateral. The company is also focusing on institutional stuff. Former Invesco ETF head John Hoffman signed on in June to lead onchain investment products. Ondo explored a $500 million acquisition and watched industry tokenized securities issuance cross $36 billion.
The company is also highlighting how its trading benefits of tokenized stock products. Ondo said its stocks platform managed $100,000 orders even when Wall Street was closed. According to Ondo, the average cost to trade $100,000 over the weekend was $119 across 26 assets. By comparison, one platform averaged $1,161 across 7 assets, and another hit $40,499 across 14 assets.
Ondo’s RWA Market Position Continues to Grow
Ondo’s presence in the tokenized real-world asset market is growing. According to RWA.xyz, Ondo controls $3.61 billion of the $38.14 billion, putting the company just below 10% of the market when stablecoins aren’t counted. Holder numbers increased by 20.7% last month, reaching 203,590 holders across 441 assets. Ondo’s OUSG treasury fund is still its biggest product at $449 million. Tokenized stocks, like Circle, NVIDIA, and Tesla, are also a major part of its business.
So even while the leadership situation is unresolved, Ondo keeps rolling out new products. The company moved from its original Layer 1 blockchain plan to a faster execution network, launched Ondo Perps, and kept adding tokenized asset offerings. The numbers show activity in Ondo’s RWA business keeps rising. Its $3.61 billion in tracked tokenized value, 203,590 holders, and 441 assets highlight how much Ondo has grown in the market.
But the leadership dispute isn’t settled yet. The Delaware court’s decision will answer a key question for Ondo: Who’s really in control after Nathan Allman’s death? All that legal drama is unfolding while Ondo keeps pushing ahead with tokenized assets, nonstop trading, and institutional financial products.
