Ondo Finance's Global Markets platform crossed $600 million in total value locked within five months of launch, capturing roughly 60% of the tokenized securities market. The platform gives non-U.S. investors blockchain-based access to over 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs, from Apple and Nvidia to the S&P 500 index fund. With $9 billion in cumulative trading volume and integrations across MetaMask, Ledger, and major DeFi protocols, Ondo Global Markets has become the largest tokenized equities platform by TVL, according to RWA.xyz data.

This guide breaks down how the platform works, what's available, where the risks sit, and why tokenized stocks are attracting serious institutional attention in 2026.

How Ondo Tokenizes U.S. Equities

Each tokenized stock on Ondo Global Markets follows a mint-and-redeem model backed by actual securities. A regulated U.S. broker-dealer, Alpaca, purchases and custodies the underlying stocks and ETFs. According to Ondo's SEC filing, the tokens represent beneficial ownership interests in securities held within control accounts at the Depository Trust Company (DTC), the same settlement infrastructure that underpins traditional U.S. stock markets.

The process works in three stages:

1. Minting: A qualified investor submits a request and deposits funds. Alpaca purchases the corresponding stock, and a token representing that position gets minted to the investor's on-chain wallet.
2. Holding and transferring: Tokens track the total return of their underlying asset, including price movements, dividends, and corporate actions. Dividends are automatically reinvested net of tax withholdings. For example, AAPLon (the tokenized Apple stock) reflects Apple's total return with dividends increasing the number of tokens held.
3. Redemption: Investors can redeem tokens for their cash value during market hours. The broker-dealer sells the underlying stock and returns proceeds.

Minting and redemption operate 24 hours a day, five days a week, while peer-to-peer token transfers work around the clock. This removes the T+1 settlement delay that traditional stock trading requires and enables something traditional brokerages cannot: transferring equity exposure between wallets as easily as sending stablecoins.

Available Assets and Multi-Chain Reach

Ondo Global Markets launched on Ethereum in September 2025 with around 100 assets. By February 2026, the catalog expanded to over 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs across three blockchains.

The asset selection spans major technology stocks (AAPL, NVDA, MSFT, META, TSLA), broad market ETFs (SPY, QQQ), and sector-specific funds. Chainlink provides the oracle price feeds that keep on-chain token prices aligned with real-time market data, while LayerZero enables cross-chain transfers between supported networks.

Geographic eligibility matters here. Ondo Global Markets is available to qualified investors in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. U.S., U.K., and EEA residents face restrictions, though the February 2026 Blockchain.com integration opened access to eligible EEA users through Liechtenstein's regulatory passporting framework.

Ondo Summit Announcements

The Ondo Summit in February 2026, which drew over 200,000 viewers and featured speakers from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Goldman Sachs, introduced two significant expansions:

Ondo Perps allows non-U.S. users to trade perpetual futures on tokenized equities with up to 20x leverage. The platform accepts tokenized securities as collateral rather than requiring stablecoins only, improving capital efficiency for active traders. Stocks like AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA plus commodities including gold and silver are available at launch.

Ondo Global Listing enables day-one tokenization of U.S. IPOs. Companies going public can have tokenized versions available the moment trading begins, expanding access to IPO allocations that have historically favored institutional investors.

DeFi Integration and Productive Capital

Tokenized stocks sitting idle in a wallet represent the same opportunity cost as holding any other dormant asset. Ondo's design philosophy treats these tokens as productive DeFi primitives rather than static holdings.

On Ethereum, select Ondo Global Markets tokens can serve as collateral in Morpho lending vaults. This means investors can borrow against their tokenized equity positions without selling them, similar to how margin accounts work in traditional finance but executed through decentralized lending protocols. Block Street, an infrastructure startup, provides institutional-grade rails for borrowing, shorting, and hedging tokenized securities.

Ondo Perps extends this further. Rather than depositing USDC as collateral and separately holding tokenized stocks, traders can post tokenized securities directly as margin. This eliminates the need to maintain duplicate reserves across separate positions. Ondo describes this as the first step toward on-chain prime brokerage, where a single interface handles spot holdings, lending, and leveraged derivatives.

The composability distinguishes Ondo's approach from tokenized stock competitors. Earlier attempts at equity tokenization produced tokens that could be bought and held but couldn't interact with the broader DeFi ecosystem. Ondo's tokens behave more like stablecoins in terms of usability: transferable, composable, and accepted across protocols.

Risks and Limitations

Tokenized stocks introduce specific risks that differ from holding traditional equities or native crypto assets.

Custody and counterparty exposure sits at the center. The entire system depends on Alpaca maintaining custody of the underlying securities and fulfilling mint/redeem obligations. Any operational failure, regulatory action, or insolvency at the broker-dealer level would directly impact token holders' ability to redeem. Ondo mitigates this through independent security agents and regulatory compliance frameworks, but the risk remains structural.

Regulatory uncertainty varies by jurisdiction. Ondo Global Markets tokens are structured as notes secured by the underlying securities rather than as direct equity ownership. Token holders don't receive shareholder voting rights. Regulatory classification of these products could change as jurisdictions develop clearer frameworks for tokenized securities, potentially affecting availability or tax treatment.

Token mechanics and pricing carry their own considerations. During U.S. market closures, tokens can still trade on secondary markets, creating potential price disconnects between the token and its underlying asset. Arbitrage mechanisms help close these gaps when markets reopen, but weekend or holiday price deviations remain possible.

ONDO token correlation is worth noting for traders holding both the governance token and the platform's tokenized products. While Ondo Global Markets' TVL has grown consistently, ONDO's price has declined over 80% from its December 2024 highs. Platform success and token appreciation don't always move in lockstep, as the January 2026 unlock of 1.94 billion ONDO tokens demonstrated. For current price dynamics, see the ONDO price prediction analysis, and for context on how Ondo's yield-bearing products compare, review the OUSG vs USDY comparison.

Tokenized Equities as On-Chain Infrastructure

Ondo Global Markets represents the most successful attempt at bringing traditional equities on-chain at scale. The $600 million TVL, 200+ asset catalog, and multi-chain distribution through wallets like MetaMask demonstrate that demand for tokenized stocks extends beyond a niche experiment. The Ondo Perps and Global Listing expansions signal ambitions well beyond simple tokenization toward a full-stack on-chain capital markets platform.

The platform's trajectory will depend on how effectively tokenized stocks integrate into the broader DeFi ecosystem and whether regulatory frameworks evolve to accommodate these hybrid instruments. Ondo Finance's approach, building within existing securities infrastructure rather than around it, positions it well for institutional adoption but leaves it exposed to the same regulatory scrutiny that governs traditional finance.

For traders interested in the tokenization thesis, ONDO provides direct exposure to the leading platform in this space. Access ONDO spot markets for long-term positioning or ONDO perpetual futures to trade around platform milestones and token unlock events. Explore our Crypto in a Minute guides for deeper coverage of RWA protocols and DeFi infrastructure.