Ondo Finance is the leading protocol for bringing real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation to DeFi — specifically US Treasury Bills and money market funds. Founded in 2021 by former Goldman Sachs employees, Ondo enables on-chain investors to hold tokenised versions of BlackRock’s money market funds (BUIDL) and US Treasury Bills through products like OUSG (Ondo US Government Bond Fund) and USDY (a yield-bearing stablecoin). These products allow crypto holders to earn US Treasury yields (5-6% in 2023-24) on-chain, without converting back to fiat. Ondo has become the largest RWA protocol by TVL, partnering with BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and other major asset managers. ONDO is the governance token, used to vote on new product additions, supported chains, and protocol parameters. Ondo operates on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum. The protocol is intentionally compliant-first: OUSG requires KYC for institutional investors, while USDY is available more broadly with lighter-touch compliance. Ondo’s success reflects a broader trend of traditional finance assets moving on-chain — RWA tokenisation was the dominant institutional DeFi narrative of 2024-25. Ondo Nexus enables 24/7 instant redemptions by matching investors peer-to-peer.
Example: A DeFi protocol holds $50M in its treasury as stablecoins, earning 0% yield. The DAO votes to convert $30M to OUSG, which tracks BlackRock’s money market fund yielding 5.2% annually — generating $1.56M/year in risk-free yield while remaining fully on-chain and redeemable. Ondo lets DAOs and protocols put idle treasury funds to work without leaving the crypto ecosystem.
Learn more: Ondo Finance
