Trump Invests... 'Ondo Finance' Dreams of Tokenization Innovation [Cointerview]

Interview with Ian De Bode, Chief Strategy Officer of Ondo Finance

US Financial Products Accessible Like Stablecoins

Trump's Pick 'Ondo'... Will Increase On-Chain Finance Utilization

Building 'Wall Street 2.0' Open Economy Infrastructure

"With the Trump administration's pro-crypto asset policies, traditional financial institutions are expected to increase their blockchain utilization. Ondo Finance will build 'Wall Street 2.0' by strengthening the connection between traditional finance and on-chain finance based on these changes."

Ian De Bode (pictured), Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of Ondo Finance (ONDO), which recently heated up the crypto asset market by announcing a partnership with the Trump family's World Liberty Financial (WLFI), stated in an interview with BloomingBit on the 1st (local time) that "the fusion of traditional financial markets and on-chain finance will progress rapidly in the future."

We heard in detail about the future of on-chain finance and the expansion possibilities of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization technology as envisioned by CSO Ian De Bode and Ondo Finance.

US Financial Products Accessible Like Stablecoins

CSO Ian revealed that Ondo Finance is pursuing two core strategies to build an on-chain financial market with both transparency and efficiency: 'Ondo Global Market,' a public securities on-chain platform, and 'Ondo Chain,' a Layer 1 (L1) for institutional-grade financial product management.

He said, "Ondo Global Market (Ondo GM) supports on-chain trading of not only stocks like Apple and Tesla, but also ETFs and mutual funds from major asset managers like Fidelity and BlackRock," and confidently added, "Just as stablecoins increased accessibility to the US dollar, Ondo GM will create innovations in liquidity and accessibility in the US securities market."

Regarding Ondo Chain, he explained, "It's a Layer 1 blockchain designed to operate institutional-grade financial markets on-chain, combining the security of permissioned blockchains with regulatory compliance features to build expansion infrastructure for institutional financial markets including DeFi, Bridging, and Real World Asset tokenization (RWA)."

Through this two-track strategy of Ondo Global Market and Ondo Chain, Ondo Finance aims to realize the on-chain transformation of multi-trillion dollar assets and lead the global asset tokenization market.

Trump Family Chooses 'Ondo'... Will Increase On-Chain Finance Utilization

He also explained the collaboration with World Liberty Financial (WLFI), operated by the Trump family, which recently caused tremendous ripples in the crypto asset industry.

CSO Ian said, "Ondo Finance plans to accelerate the adoption of real-world asset tokenization and the on-chain transformation of traditional finance through collaboration with World Liberty Financial," adding, "WLFI is considering integrating Ondo's tokenized assets such as US Dollar Yield Token (USDY) and Short-Term US Treasury (OUSG) as Treasury Reserve Assets, and plans to support lending, borrowing, and margin trading using tokenized assets on the WLFI platform in the future. This will establish the foundation for operating institutional-grade financial markets on-chain."

In fact, World Liberty Financial has been steadily purchasing Ondo Finance (ONDO) tokens since its launch late last year. The most recent purchase was worth $4.7 million on February 7, and on-chain indicators for long-term token holders and whale purchases have been rising following World Liberty's acquisitions.

Additionally, Ondo Finance is expanding its on-chain financial market infrastructure through partnerships with PayPal USD (PYUSD), XRP Ledger, and others.

He also had a positive outlook on the Trump administration's pro-crypto asset policies. He stated, "Since the Trump administration took office, foundations for regulatory relief have been laid, such as the withdrawal of the SEC's crypto asset-related accounting guidelines (SAB 121)," adding, "These changes will allow institutions to more actively pursue entry into on-chain finance based on the new regulatory environment."

Building 'Wall Street 2.0' Open Economy Infrastructure

CSO Ian emphasized that Ondo Finance ultimately plans to create 'Wall Street 2.0,' an open economic infrastructure that improves the inefficiencies of the current financial market through on-chain infrastructure.

He said, "Traditional financial markets suffer from inefficiencies due to high transaction costs, low transparency, slow settlement speeds, limited operating hours, and fragmented structures," adding, "Ondo will realize 'Wall Street 2.0,' an open economic infrastructure that supports major securities traded in the US to be traded in a 24-hour global market through RWA on-chain transformation, while maintaining blockchain's openness and transparency through enhanced security and regulatory compliance."

He added, "The global financial asset size amounts to $867 trillion. A significant portion of this has the potential to be tokenized," and "If these assets are brought on-chain while meeting appropriate regulatory compliance and security standards, the financial market could undergo a revolutionary change."

Youngmin Lee, BloomingBit reporter 20min@bloomingbit.io