Ondo Finance introduces execution layer as tokenized equities volume jumps 288%
Tech & Launches ·
The firm behind USDY unveiled Ondo Network, a new infrastructure layer for onchain asset trading, alongside data showing tokenized equities activity surging in July.
Ondo Finance announced Ondo Network, described as an execution layer meant to combine the speed and confidentiality of centralized trading venues with the auditability of blockchain systems, while remaining non-custodial. The layer is already operational, powering Ondo Perps, a perpetual futures platform the company launched the prior week. According to the announcement, the design shift emerged after builders determined that the real bottleneck for high-performance, private trading was not settlement — which blockchains already handle well — but execution speed, an area where conventional decentralized systems tend to lag.
The launch arrives alongside figures showing tokenized equities volume reached $11.3B in July, a 288% increase from the prior month, a jump cited as evidence that tokenization of traditional financial instruments is accelerating rapidly. That growth was reinforced by a separate development in the same period: BNY Mellon rolled out blockchain-based transfer agency services for tokenized funds, with Baillie Gifford named as an early client, according to a post shared on x.com.
Ondo's blog post frames the new network as a response to tradeoffs seen across existing models. Centralized exchanges offer speed and privacy but require trusting an operator; app-specific chains and zero-knowledge exchanges offer transparency and security at the cost of speed and privacy; permissioned systems like Canton offer privacy and security but sacrifice open verifiability and access. Ondo Network is positioned as an attempt to avoid forcing that single tradeoff by separating execution from settlement rather than running both on one ledger secured by one consensus mechanism.
The broader momentum around Ondo's tokenized asset business is also visible in its Treasury-backed token, USDY, which has reached a $2.1B market cap and roughly 30,000 holders across six blockchains in its third year of operation, according to the cluster's corroborating reporting.
What remains unclear is how Ondo Network will scale beyond its initial use case in Ondo Perps, what specific verification or consensus mechanisms underpin its claimed non-custodial design, and whether the reported 288% jump in tokenized equities volume reflects a durable trend or a short-term spike tied to a handful of large transactions in July.