Ondo Finance Unveils L1 Blockchain, Attracts Institutional Backing

Ondo Finance, a pioneering asset tokenization firm, has unveiled its own Layer-1 (L1) blockchain, Ondo Chain, during the highly anticipated Ondo Summit. This significant development comes just days after the announcement of Ondo Global Markets, marking a substantial stride towards institutional-grade Real World Asset (RWA) adoption.

The new blockchain, Ondo Chain, is designed to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), providing an infrastructure that ensures regulatory compliance while maintaining the open-access ethos of blockchain technology. The network has already garnered significant support from industry heavyweights, with financial institutions such as Franklin Templeton, Wellington Management, and WisdomTree joining as design advisors. These organizations, among others, will contribute credibility and expertise to the project, potentially solidifying Ondo Finance's place in the RWA sector.

The announcement of Ondo Chain comes at a time when public blockchains struggle to meet the requirements of tokenized assets at scale. Ondo Finance identified five major challenges hindering RWA adoption: incompatibility with DeFi, fragmented cross-chain liquidity, high and volatile transaction fees, inadequate network security models, and institutional regulatory concerns. The network designed Ondo Chain to address these hurdles, introducing enhanced security with validators able to stake RWAs instead of native crypto tokens, reducing volatility-related risks.

The presence of Donald Trump Jr., a surprise keynote speaker, added to the excitement of the Ondo Summit. His appearance highlights the growing political and regulatory significance of digital assets in the US market. Following the announcement of Ondo Finance's L1 launch, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump family's DeFi project, purchased $470,000 worth of ONDO tokens, bringing the total value of ONDO tokens collected to date to nearly $700,000.

The launch of Ondo Chain is pivotal for the network, which recently announced an ambitious initiative, Ondo Global Markets (Ondo GM). Last week, the firm also revealed plans to launch a tokenized US Treasury fund on the XRP Ledger, signaling its broader commitment to expanding the RWA ecosystem across multiple blockchains. These developments suggest the network's effort to establish itself as a major force in the RWA space, with data on rwa.xyz ranking it the fourth-largest protocol in total RWA value, with over $