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All Change! Ondo Finance Retires Ondo Chain Plan in Favour of New Ondo Network Execution Layer

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Jul 28
  • 3 min read
Ondo Finance, one of the tokenisation platforms UK infrastructure builders watch most closely for signals on where real world asset architecture is heading, has quietly abandoned its original plan to build a full blockchain and replaced it with a narrower execution layer instead. The company launched the Ondo Network on 27 July, described by chief executive Ian De Bode as the evolution of Ondo Chain, the full blockchain the firm previously set out to build. Asked whether the new network effectively replaces that plan, De Bode said Ondo will not run Ondo Chain and Ondo Network in parallel, making clear this is a course correction rather than an additional product line. The reasoning matters for anyone building tokenisation infrastructure, including UK platforms operating inside the Digital Securities Sandbox or preparing PISCES compatible systems. Ondo concluded, while developing its Ondo Perps trading platform and speaking to customers, that execution speed rather than settlement finality was the real bottleneck limiting on chain trading of tokenised assets. Traditional blockchains perform execution, verification and settlement on the same shared ledger, which gives durability and trust but makes them too slow and too transparent for high performance trading.

Ondo Finance, one of the tokenisation platforms UK infrastructure builders watch most closely for signals on where real world asset architecture is heading, has quietly abandoned its original plan to build a full blockchain and replaced it with a narrower execution layer instead.


The company launched the Ondo Network on 27 July, described by chief executive Ian De Bode as the evolution of Ondo Chain, the full blockchain the firm previously set out to build. Asked whether the new network effectively replaces that plan, De Bode said Ondo will not run Ondo Chain and Ondo Network in parallel, making clear this is a course correction rather than an additional product line.


The reasoning matters for anyone building tokenisation infrastructure, including UK platforms operating inside the Digital Securities Sandbox or preparing PISCES compatible systems. Ondo concluded, while developing its Ondo Perps trading platform and speaking to customers, that execution speed rather than settlement finality was the real bottleneck limiting on chain trading of tokenised assets. Traditional blockchains perform execution, verification and settlement on the same shared ledger, which gives durability and trust but makes them too slow and too transparent for high performance trading.


The Ondo Network instead separates execution from settlement and verification while keeping users in custody of their own assets. According to De Bode, a decentralised network of attestors determines which code secure hardware enclaves are permitted to run, effectively verifying that only approved code executes trades. Asset transfers currently settle on Ethereum, with support for additional public blockchains planned, and De Bode said the network will eventually commit settled state to public chains for a durable, immutable record, similar to the approach used by Lighter.


Ondo Perps, the platform's round the clock perpetual futures product for tokenised equities and commodities, is the first live application built on the new network, with tokenised real world assets accepted as collateral. Ondo said the architecture is general purpose and could eventually support spot markets, lending, structured products and non financial applications that need fast, private and verifiable execution.


The ONDO token's role is unchanged. De Bode said it remains the governance and ecosystem token for Ondo's real world asset and markets infrastructure, and will sit at the centre of incentives and governance as the network decentralises further, adding more attestors and watchers over time.


The pivot lands after a run of expansion from Ondo this year across round the clock minting of tokenised US stocks and voting rights for tokenised security holders, all covered on this site as they happened. What is new here is not another asset or market added to the platform, but an admission that the execution layer, not the settlement layer, is where tokenised markets have been getting stuck. For UK founders and platforms watching how institutional grade tokenisation infrastructure is maturing, that is a useful data point regardless of which chain eventually wins.


Key Takeaways


  • Ondo Finance has retired its original full blockchain plan, Ondo Chain, replacing it with a narrower execution layer called the Ondo Network.

  • The new architecture separates trade execution from settlement and verification, addressing a speed bottleneck that has limited high performance trading of tokenised assets on chain.

  • Ondo Perps, the platform's 24 hour perpetual futures product for tokenised equities and commodities, is the first application running on the new network.

  • Asset transfers currently settle on Ethereum, with more public blockchains planned, and the ONDO token's governance role is unchanged.

  • The move signals that execution speed, not settlement finality, is emerging as the binding constraint for real time markets in tokenised real world assets, a lesson relevant to UK platforms building inside the Digital Securities Sandbox and around PISCES.


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