Ondo Global Markets User FAQ
What is Ondo Global Markets?
Ondo Global Markets is a platform that tokenizes publicly traded U.S. stocks and ETFs. It enables investors outside the United States to gain economic exposure to these assets by minting, transferring, and redeeming securities-backed tokens on Ethereum, with Solana, BNB Chain, and others coming soon. Each token is fully backed by the corresponding stock or ETF, held with one or more licensed U.S. custodial broker-dealers (together with cash in transit).
What are Ondo tokenized stocks and ETFs?
Ondo tokenized stocks and ETFs are digital tokens that deliver total‑return exposure to publicly traded assets. Each token mirrors the economic performance of its underlying asset—including price movements, dividends, and corporate actions—so holders participate in the same economic results as if they owned the asset directly, with dividends invested (net of any applicable withholding taxes) back into the asset.
For example, AAPLon—the “‑on” suffix denotes an Ondo tokenized asset—reflects the total return of Apple Inc. (AAPL), giving tokenholders the economic exposure of holding AAPL with dividends reinvested. Prices are quoted in USD.
This model is inspired by stablecoins and designed for simplicity and accessibility: instead of directly holding the underlying asset or rights to receive it, tokenholders hold a token that can be redeemed for stablecoins, while benefiting from the total economic performance of the underlying asset.
How do Ondo tokenized stocks provide tokenholders with the liquidity of traditional markets?
Ondo Global Markets is designed to instantly tap into the liquidity of traditional equity markets. As such, we generally can provide the same liquidity for our tokens onchain as is available for the corresponding underlying asset in traditional trading venues. Ondo tokenized stocks do not require dedicated onchain liquidity pools. Note that, in order to mint or redeem tokens, primary purchasers must be successfully KYCed by the token issuer.
Why is this important?
Liquidity refers to how easily and efficient you can buy or sell an asset without significantly affecting its price. Traditional equity markets often have very deep liquidity, allowing for tight bid-ask spreads and minimal slippage, even for large trades. Through its design, the Global Markets platform enables its tokenized stocks and ETFs to have similar levels of liquidity.
When can I trade Ondo tokenized stocks?
Minting and redeeming directly from the Global Markets platform is generally available 24 hours a day, five days a week (24/5), from Sunday 8:00:00 pm ET to Friday 7:59:00 pm ET.* (Note: There are four short pauses of a few minutes each day during trading hours. Click here for more details.)
*Note that minting and redeeming of tokens may be temporarily be halted due to certain corporate actions (e.g. dividends, stock splits, etc.), market conditions (e.g. excessive volatility, transition to a new trading session, etc.), or system risk controls being triggered. You can track such halts at https://status.gm.ondo.finance.
Are Ondo tokenized stocks freely transferrable?
Yes. All Ondo tokenized stocks are freely transferable outside the U.S. across supported blockchains, subject to the token eligibility criteria and applicable contractual restrictions.
How do Ondo tokenized stocks track the price of the real stock?
Ondo tokenized stocks are total-return trackers of their underlying securities. This means they reflect both price movements and reinvested dividends, giving users exposure to the economic performance of the real stock over time—not just the price appreciation.
When you hold an Ondo tokenized stock, you receive the economic exposure as if you owned the actual stock and invested its dividends (net of any applicable withholding taxes) into the stock. This ensures that the tokenized asset mirrors the total return of the real-world asset.
For more on how corporate actions are handled, see the below questions on dividends and stock splits.
1. What are total-return trackers?
Total-return trackers are financial assets that are designed to mirror the complete performance of an index or asset. Unlike price-return trackers, which only capture an asset’s market value changes, total-return trackers account for all cash flows—dividends, interest, or capital gains distributions—assuming these are reinvested to compound returns (net of applicable withholding taxes).
A total-return tracker includes:
Price movements – gains or losses in the asset’s market value
Income distributions – such as dividends (for stocks) or interest (for bonds)
Corporate actions – like mergers that may affect total value
By capturing both capital gains and income, total-return trackers offer a more comprehensive reflection of an asset’s performance than price-only trackers.
2. What are withholding taxes?
Withholding taxes are taxes that are automatically deducted from certain types of income—such as dividends—before that income is paid. For U.S. stocks, brokers are generally required to withhold a portion of dividends payable to non‑U.S. investors based on the tax rules that apply to the entity receiving the dividend.
The Ondo Global Markets entity that issues the tokens is based in the British Virgin Islands, so dividends paid by U.S. companies to the entity are subject to the standard 30% U.S. withholding tax. This is the default rate that applies to non-U.S. persons, in accordance with U.S. tax regulations.
When we reinvest dividends, we do so net of this withholding tax. As an example, let’s say that Coca-Cola (KO) paid out a $1 dividend per share and Global Markets held 10 shares (for a total of $10 received in dividend payments). In this case, the Global Markets platform would withhold 30% of $10 (or $3) for payment of taxes, and take the other $7 and reinvest it to purchase additional KO shares.
3. Do I receive dividends from Ondo tokenized stocks?
Instead of distributing dividends as cash payouts directly to asset holders, Ondo Global Markets automatically invests their equivalent value into the underlying stock, net of applicable withholding taxes. As a result, you receive the economic benefit of dividends through either a higher token value or a greater token balance—depending on the blockchain you're using.*
Example:
Suppose Tesla stock is trading at $100 and pays a $2 dividend. In a traditional brokerage account:
Tesla’s price drops to $98 after the $2 dividend.
After 30% withholding tax (default rate for non-U.S. investors), users receive $1.40 in dividend income in cash.
For Ondo tokenized stocks on Ethereum:
We collect the $1.40 net dividend in our brokerage account.
We invest $1.40 into Tesla stock. $1.40 buys $1.40 / $98 = 0.014 additional shares.
Your Ondo Tesla token now represents 1.014 shares of Tesla, rather than just 1 share.
As a result, the token’s price becomes $99.40 (1.014 × $98). The token price may diverge from Tesla’s market price, but it accurately reflects the total-return value of TSLA, including reinvested dividends (net of applicable withholding taxes).
This approach simplifies dividend management and ensures your economic exposure grows automatically—no manual reinvestment required.
Note that on other blockchains (e.g., Solana) and some centralized exchanges, the token price may track the per-share stock price at all times. On these blockchains and exchanges, your token balance will change to automatically reflect the reinvested dividend, and the token price will always track the underlying price.
*On Ethereum, dividend-related value is reflected by an increase in the price of each token. On Solana, using its Scaled UI feature, dividend-related value will be reflected on most frontend user interfaces as an increase in the number of tokens in your wallet. Scaled UI is a Solana token extension that lets issuers dynamically adjust user-facing token balances in frontends (for example, to distribute yield.) Because the displayed balances increase, the displayed token prices are stable. On the chain itself (the backend,) token balances are stable, and prices increase. However, as the majority of the Solana ecosystem supports Scaled UI, the economic effect will show up as more tokens rather than a higher per‑token price.
4. What are the fees?
The token issuer, Ondo Global Markets (BVI) Limited, does not charge fees for minting or redeeming Ondo tokenized stocks at this time. (Users will need to pay their own gas fees, however.)
Note that token mint and redemption prices may not exactly equal their underlying asset prices due to volatility and latency-driven adjustments.
5. How are Ondo tokenized stocks different from traditional stocks?
Ondo tokenized stocks track the stock’s total return—similar to how a USD stablecoin mirrors the value of a U.S. dollar but does not give direct ownership of the underlying assets held by the stablecoin issuer.
How are my Ondo tokenized stocks secured and protected?
1. Bankruptcy-Remote Legal Structure
Ondo tokenized stocks are issued using battle-tested practices designed to maximize bankruptcy remoteness. This includes issuance from a special purpose vehicle managed by a distinct Board of Directors with an independent director, as well as segregation of assets, books and accounts from Ondo Finance Inc. and the Ondo Foundation group. These measures help ensure that the tokens' backing assets remain protected, even in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy or insolvency.
2. Full Asset Backing and Security Interest
Ondo tokenized stocks are all fully backed by their underlying stocks and ETFs (together with cash in transit). Further, the issuer of Ondo tokenized stocks is required to ensure that there is additional collateral available—above and beyond this full backing—at all times to overcollateralize its obligations to tokenholders.
Tokenholder interests are further supported via an independent third-party security agent, Ankura Trust Company, which holds a first-priority, perfected security interest in this collateral, and is authorized and empowered to take possession of this collateral, exchange it for cash, and distribute the proceeds to tokenholders in specified events of issuer default. For example, if for some reason the issuer were unable to adequately service token redemption requests, or were unable to adequately maintain the full backing of the tokens, the requisite tokenholders could direct the security agent to take possession of this collateral, exchange it for cash, and distribute the proceeds to tokenholders as described above.
3. Transparent Holdings with Regulated Custodians
Ondo Global Markets provides daily attestations of Ondo tokenized stocks holdings, conducted by an independent third-party verification agent, Ankura Trust Company. The daily attestations can be viewed online beginning October 1, 2025. All Ondo Global Markets holdings are held with one or more U.S.-registered custodial broker-dealers.
4. Smart Contract Security
Ondo Stock token smart contracts have been rigorously tested and have undergone independent audits by Spearbit and Cyfrin to ensure code integrity and protocol safety. More details can be found here at launch.
5. Who is eligible to mint and redeem Ondo tokenized stocks?
Minting and redemption of Ondo tokenized stocks is available only to persons who have successfully completed the Ondo Global Markets KYC and onboarding process, and is subject to certain jurisdiction-based prohibitions and restrictions. Amongst those prohibitions and restrictions are the following: Ondo tokenized stocks are only offered and sold (i) to non-U.S. persons who are located outside the U.S. and who initiate their buy orders from outside the U.S. and (ii) to qualified investors in the EEA and UK.
