Ondo Launches Notes on Private Companies, First in AI Sector

On October 6, 2026, Ondo Finance announced the launch of Ondo Private Markets, which provides tokenized notes for investors outside the United States, allowing them to gain economic exposure to shares of a private company ahead of its IPO. The first product is linked to an unnamed company in the artificial intelligence sector and will begin trading on the secondary market this week. Tokenized notes allow holders to benefit from the appreciation of stock value without granting them voting rights or direct ownership in the private company. As highlighted by Ondo's management, these instruments will only be available to eligible investors from permitted jurisdictions. The tokens are intended solely for non-U.S. investors and are not registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, restricting their offering in the U.S. or to U.S. citizens. Ondo has not disclosed whether the unnamed AI company has approved participation in the product.

Investors will be able to hold the notes in self-custody wallets or trade them on the secondary market around the clock. Acting CEO and President Jan De Bode noted that the new product was created to provide trading opportunities in permitted markets on a 24/7 basis. Ondo also announced plans to offer tokenized notes linked to other sectors such as robotics, cybersecurity, biotechnology, infrastructure, defense, energy, and space. The payout on the notes will be tied to the market value of the shares at the time of a qualifying liquidity event, which may include an IPO or another type of transaction specified in the legal terms of the specific token.

The Ondo Stocks platform, which provides tokenized stocks and ETFs, already exceeds $1 billion in total value locked and offers over 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs on Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana with geographical restrictions. In May, Ondo Stocks surpassed $1 billion TVL in less than eight months after launch, processing $18 billion in cumulative volume and holding over 70% market share of tokenized stock issuers. In September, the cumulative trading volume through the platform exceeded $26 billion following integration with NEAR Intents, and the catalog grew from approximately 260 assets to over 450.

Separately, Ondo is developing a regulated business in the U.S. In July, its SEC-registered broker-dealer subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets received FINRA authorizations for tokenized corporate stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, index funds, IPO securities, and private placements for U.S. investors. Other platforms are also entering private markets. In April, venture fund Robinhood invested $75 million in common stock of OpenAI to provide retail investors access through a public closed-end fund. It was reported that in June, Citi was launching a blockchain marketplace for private company stocks. At the time of publication, according to CoinGecko, the ONDO token was trading around $0.49, down approximately 2.1% over 24 hours and down 6% over seven days.