Some of the companies investors most want to buy aren’t on a stock exchange. Ondo Finance wants to make them easier to access, starting with an AI business.
The company has introduced Ondo Private Markets, offering tokenized investments linked to individual private companies. Its first offering is expected to begin secondary trading this week. Ondo has not yet named the AI company it will track.
The idea is straightforward: give eligible investors exposure before a business goes public, with a way to sell their position without waiting for an IPO.
There is one important distinction. Buyers receive a financial note tied to the company’s performance, rather than shares in the company itself.
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What Makes This Different?
Buying a tokenized public stock gives you exposure to a company already listed on an exchange. Ondo Private Markets moves earlier, targeting businesses that haven’t reached that stage.
Investors can choose a specific company, hold the tokens in their own wallets and trade them on secondary markets around the clock. After AI, Ondo plans to expand into robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure. ondo.finance
Its pitch combines individual-company choice, self-custody and 24/7 trading. Instead of buying a basket of businesses selected by a fund manager, investors can choose the company they want exposure to.
That could give them more control over both what they buy and how long they keep it. But making an investment transferable is only part of the job. A useful market also needs enough buyers and sellers.
MoonPay and Robinhood Are Pursuing Private Markets, Too
MoonPay is making its own move through its agreement to acquire North Capital, announced September 23.
North Capital provides technology and regulated services for private securities, including brokerage, custody and secondary trading. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
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The difference is what these announcements deliver.
Ondo is introducing an investment product. MoonPay is acquiring the infrastructure that helps private investments operate.
North Capital says its platform has supported more than $8.7 billion in primary and secondary transactions. Bringing those capabilities into MoonPay would connect private securities with its wider fiat and crypto services.
Other approaches are emerging, too. Robinhood’s publicly traded venture fund offers exposure to private companies through a fund, while Citi has reportedly been developing a blockchain marketplace for private-company shares.
These are different routes into the same broad market. A fund holds a portfolio on investors’ behalf. A share marketplace facilitates ownership transactions. Ondo’s new notes offer exposure to the financial outcome of a particular company.
For readers comparing them, the first question should be simple: Am I buying shares, a fund holding or a contract linked to a company’s value?
What Ondo Investors Actually Own
According to Ondo, buyers receive a tokenized note whose value is calculated from the value realized per common share of the company it tracks, under the note’s offering terms.
The payout is linked to a qualifying liquidity event. Holders do not receive ownership, voting rights or other shareholder rights in the underlying business. The obligation to pay belongs to the note’s issuer.
Access is limited to eligible non-U.S. investors in permitted jurisdictions.
Put simply, buyers get a financial product tied to an investment outcome. They do not join the company’s shareholder register.
That makes the terms important: what triggers payment, how the payout is calculated and who is responsible for delivering it.
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Investors may also seek to sell before that payment happens. Ondo identifies its Perps Spot Market as a trading venue, with 24/7 availability subject to maintenance, risk controls and issuer pauses.
An open market does not guarantee a buyer at the price you want. Around-the-clock access is useful, but it does not remove the investment’s risks.
Crypto’s Investment Menu Keeps Growing
Ian De Bode, Ondo’s acting CEO and president, described the ambition in the company’s October 6 announcement:
“Bringing tokenized exposure to the world's best companies with 24/7 trading on permissionless rails.”
Ondo says its existing tokenized stocks and Treasuries platforms together represent $3.7 billion in total value locked and more than one million cumulative holders. Those figures describe its established products, rather than adoption of Private Markets.
The launch follows Ondo’s introduction of Intelligent Portfolios, which combine baskets of tokenized assets into single tokens with scheduled rebalancing. The first three used portfolio strategies developed by BlackRock for Ondo.
Distribution is expanding as well. NEAR.com recently added Ondo’s tokenized stocks, including exposure to Nvidia, Tesla and Apple, with eligible users able to pay using assets across more than 30 networks.
Private Markets adds another option: businesses that have yet to list.
The competition is welcome. Investors benefit when platforms compete to improve access, lower friction and offer more useful financial products.
For Ondo, the next test is practical: which company comes first, what the investment terms say and whether an active trading market develops. That is where the promise of opening private markets becomes something investors can judge for themselves.
Reporting by Lidia Yadlos
