Key Takeaways:
Ondo Perps lets traders use tokenized stocks as collateral for leveraged perpetual futures, bridging crypto derivatives with real-world assets.
Ondo Finance launched Ondo Perps in public beta in June, giving eligible non-US users access to perpetual futures on tokenized versions of US stocks, exchange-traded funds, and commodities with leverage of as much as 20x, the company said. The platform supports 24/7 trading on markets linked to Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, gold, silver, the US 100, and the US 500, among others.
"Tokenized equities have reached sufficient scale and distribution to support a derivatives layer," an Ondo spokesperson said. "Ondo Perps is the first capital-efficient solution that allows these assets to serve directly as margin, rather than requiring traders to post stablecoins or crypto separately."
The product builds on Ondo Global Markets, the company's tokenized stocks and ETFs platform for eligible non-US users, which crossed $1 billion in total value locked in under eight months and has passed $18 billion in cumulative trading volume. Ondo now leads the tokenized equity category with 405 assets valued at about $870 million, representing a 43.61 percent market share, according to the company. Blockchain.com added 173 new tokenized stocks and ETFs through Ondo in June, bringing its total Ondo-powered offering to more than 430 assets across Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.
The launch comes as the broader tokenized real-world asset market reaches new highs. Total tokenized RWA market capitalization rose 1.75 percent to $30.1 billion in June, the highest end-of-month level on record, according to CoinDesk's STAR report. Tokenized equities surged 6.64 percent to a record $1.53 billion, extending the sector's growth to 15 consecutive months. On-chain trading volumes for tokenized equities jumped 145 percent to a record $3.86 billion in June, driven by the SpaceX IPO, with tokenized SPCX recording $1.19 billion in volume across the month.
The Collateral Model Changes the Math
The defining feature of Ondo Perps is not the leverage level but the collateral model. Most crypto perpetual exchanges require stablecoins or native crypto assets as margin. Ondo Perps allows tokenized securities — including tokenized stocks and ETFs — to serve directly as collateral for leveraged positions, with cross-margining across multiple positions.
This design narrows the gap between on-chain derivatives and the traditional markets they reference. A trader holding tokenized Nvidia exposure can use that position as margin to open a leveraged short on the Nasdaq 100, all within the same platform. A market maker can hedge equity perp exposure with collateral linked to the same real-world markets it is quoting, improving capital efficiency by reducing the need for assets to sit idle across separate systems.
The initial offering includes 17 stocks — AAPL, AMD, AMZN, COIN, CRCL, GOOGL, HOOD, INTC, META, MSFT, MSTR, NFLX, NVDA, ORCL, PLTR, QQQ, and TSLA — plus gold and silver. The protocol handles corporate actions such as stock splits and dividends automatically for users. US citizens are restricted from using the platform due to regulatory requirements.
Competition Heats Up in Tokenized Equity Derivatives
Ondo enters a market that already has established players. Kraken launched what it called the first regulated tokenized equity perpetual futures in February, offering up to 20x leverage to clients in 110 countries. Coinbase followed in March with perpetual equity futures for eligible non-US customers, offering 10x leverage on stock contracts and 20x on ETF contracts, settled in USDC.
Each platform differentiates through collateral models, supported assets, and regulatory coverage. Ondo's primary distinction is allowing tokenized real-world assets to serve directly as trading collateral rather than relying exclusively on crypto assets. The company has said additional stocks, ETFs, and commodities are planned following the initial launch.
The risk is that tokenized equity perps depend on traditional market infrastructure for pricing and liquidity. Equity prices react to earnings, macro data, and company news when traditional venues are closed. A 20x leveraged position can move from profitable to liquidated quickly if pricing, collateral valuation, or hedging fails to keep pace during volatile periods. Early metrics such as daily trading volume, open interest, funding-rate stability, and order-book depth will determine whether Ondo Perps can compete with larger centralized exchanges that already operate established perpetual futures markets.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
