Exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer 21Shares has officially filed for a new spot crypto product focused on Ondo (ONDO), the native token of the rising real-world asset (RWA) platform Ondo Finance. The S-1 filing, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, proposes the “21Shares Ondo Trust”—a product that would track the token’s market price via the CME CF Ondo Finance-Dollar Reference Rate.
Coinbase is set to serve as custodian for the trust’s ONDO holdings. As outlined in the filing, the product would function as a passive investment vehicle with no leverage or speculative exposure, offering share creation and redemption in both cash and in-kind formats.
Ondo: A New Player in Tokenized Finance
Ondo Finance, founded in 2021 by former Goldman Sachs veterans Nathan Allman and Pinku Suran, is aiming to reshape how traditional assets like U.S. Treasurys and money market funds are brought onchain. The project recently expanded its presence in the institutional finance space with the acquisition of SEC-registered broker-dealer Oasis Pro—a move signaling its intent to tokenize securities in partnership with major crypto investment firm Pantera Capital.
Oasis Pro’s regulatory credentials, including its registration as an Alternative Trading System (ATS) and transfer agent, position it as a crucial piece of infrastructure in bridging regulated financial products with decentralized finance protocols.
Earlier this year, Ondo also launched its own layer-1 blockchain, Ondo Chain, which targets institutional adoption of RWAs with a proof-of-stake architecture built to support compliant, large-scale financial transactions.
Market and Political Ties
ONDO is currently trading around $1.12 with a market cap of $3.5 billion, down from its December high of $2.14. The token has a circulating supply of 3.1 billion out of a 10 billion total supply, according to CoinGecko.
The project has even caught the attention of political players. World Liberty Financial—a DeFi platform connected to the Trump family—holds a small allocation of ONDO, valued at around $383,000. While that stake represents just 0.2% of its $208 million portfolio, it marks another sign of Ondo’s growing reach beyond traditional crypto circles.
Growing Demand for Real-World Asset Tokenization
Tokenized RWAs have become one of the fastest-growing segments in crypto. According to RWA.xyz, the total value of tokenized real-world assets onchain has surged 58% this year, now approaching $25 billion. Ethereum remains the dominant platform, holding a 55% market share of these tokenized assets.
21Shares’ ONDO filing joins a growing list of crypto ETFs awaiting regulatory greenlights. Bloomberg analysts recently upped their approval odds for XRP, Dogecoin, and Cardano ETFs to 90% by year’s end, highlighting the mounting pressure on the SEC to bring more crypto assets into regulated investment vehicles.
As the demand for tokenized financial products heats up, 21Shares’ push to launch a spot ONDO ETF reflects a broader shift in how institutional and retail investors may soon gain exposure to real-world assets via blockchain. Whether ONDO secures a spot on Wall Street remains in the SEC’s hands—but the race to bridge traditional finance and decentralized networks is clearly accelerating.
