Ondo Catalyst Fund Launched: Crypto Titans Invest $250M to Win the RWA Arms Race
Ondo Finance and Pantera Capital are stepping up their attempts to move traditional financial markets onto the blockchain by investing $250 million in real-world asset initiatives. The funds would be used through a new program called Ondo Catalyst, according to Ian De Bode, chief strategy officer at Ondo, who made this announcement on July 3. Emerging RWA initiatives will see token and equity interests acquired by the new enterprise.
The partnership between Ondo Finance and cryptocurrency venture capital firm Pantera Capital coincides with the growing popularity of tokenized securities among exchanges and institutions. Due to the need for more effective capital infrastructure and round-the-clock market access, De Bode characterized the RWA tokenization arena as an arms race.
Catalyst Fund to Pour $250M Into Tokenizing Traditional Finance Products
The $250 million Catalyst Fund will focus on companies that are tokenizing conventional financial products, such as stocks, bonds, private equity, and real estate. This comes days after Robinhood introduced tokenized shares of companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX for users in the EU. Given that the offerings were based on synthetic derivatives rather than real shares, the move attracted both attention and criticism.
The Global Markets Alliance, a coalition of the Solana Foundation, Fireblocks, BitGo, Trust Wallet, 1inch, and others, was unveiled on June 17 and supports that platform. They’re collaborating to standardize tokenized securities and enhance 24/7 access to U.S. markets.
Ondo’s Treasury Token Products Gain Momentum With New Blockchain Integrations
Additionally, Ondo has been expanding its treasury-tokenized goods across several blockchains. OUSG, a token supported by BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, was introduced on the XRP Ledger on June 11. Through the connection, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin may be minted and redeemed around the clock. According to data from rwa.xyz, the combined market capitalization of OUSG and its sister coin USDY is currently approximately $1.4 billion.
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