Ondo drops its planned blockchain for a private execution network
Ondo Finance has replaced Ondo Chain, the institutional layer-1 it announced in February 2025, with an off-chain execution network that settles on public blockchains—a bet that what institutional tokenized markets lack is execution speed and privacy, not another place to settle.
What happened
On 27 July Ondo Finance introduced the Ondo Network, an execution layer that runs trades inside secure hardware enclaves at what the firm calls near-exchange speeds, while asset transfers settle on public blockchains and a decentralised set of attestors verifies that only approved code is running. The network replaces Ondo Chain, the conventional layer-1 the firm set out in February 2025, and its first application, the Ondo Perps perpetual futures venue, is already live on it. Chief executive Ian De Bode told The Block the network is an evolution of the chain plan and that the firm will not run the two in parallel.
Why it matters
Ondo is among the largest issuers of tokenized assets, with roughly $2.6bn in tokenized US Treasury products and about $850m in tokenized equities by CoinDesk's account, so its architecture carries weight beyond its own venues. The design keeps settlement and custody on public chains but concedes that a conventional blockchain cannot match a centralised exchange on execution speed or privacy—the same question of where execution should sit relative to settlement that runs through DTCC's tokenization service and the newer exchange chains.
What is not settled
The sources disagree on what has been abandoned: The Block reports De Bode framing the network as an 'evolution' of Ondo Chain, while CoinDesk describes Ondo dropping its blockchain plans outright. The timetable for decentralising the attestor set, the ONDO token's role beyond governance and incentives, and whether spot markets, structured products and lending follow perpetual futures onto the network are all open.
Institutions in this story
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Ondo Finance
Issuer
Abandoned the layer-1 it set out in February 2025 for an execution network running in hardware enclaves, keeping settlement and custody on public chains; with roughly $2.6bn of tokenized Treasury products behind it, the choice is an argument about where execution belongs rather than a product change.
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Securitize
Tokenization platform
Runs the competing model, in which regulated issuance and transfer-agent duties sit around public chain settlement without a separate execution layer, which is the comparison the Ondo design invites.
On the record
Ondo replaces its planned layer-1 with an off-chain execution network
Ondo Finance introduced the Ondo Network on 27 July 2026, an execution layer running trades inside secure hardware enclaves with asset transfers settling on public blockchains and a set of attestors verifying the code in use. It replaces Ondo Chain, the institutional layer-1 announced in February 2025, and carries the firm's perpetual futures venue as its first application.