Ian De Bode, president of Ondo Finance, joins Remy Blaire to discuss the rapid growth of tokenized stocks, the push toward 24/7 trading, and how regulation could shape market structure in 2026.
Get the latest news and updates on FINTECH.TV
Remy: Let's get to the big story breakdown. Wall Street is eyeing a major shift in market architecture, as the tokenization of real world assets moves into the institutional mainstream. This momentum comes as the New York Stock Exchange is looking at a move to 24/7 trading, and as Congress debates a critical crypto market structure bill to finally set the rules of the road. All eyes are on New York City this coming Tuesday. Ondo Finance's platform has emerged as the dominant player in the space, with $9 billion in trading volume and $600 million in total assets, while joining me ahead of the Ondo Finance Summit here in New York City is Ian De Bode, president at Ondo Finance. Great to have you back. Thank you so much for joining me.
Ian: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
Remy: Well, first and foremost, I understand that Ondo Finance accounts for more than 50% of the tokenized stock market. So tell us about the factors that are driving this and this capital concentration.
Ian: Yeah. No 100%. We've seen very aggressive growth of our product. Most of the demand is really being seen from offshore investors. And we're seeing a trend where a lot of people who discover it that a stablecoin is a very helpful way to get access to the U.S. dollar. Those same people are starting to figure out that tokenized stocks can be very helpful way to get access to U.S. capital markets. So we're seeing crypto wallets. Crypto exchanges also start to list these tokenized equities to really diversify their own revenue base and get exposure to these tokenized stocks and ETFs to their investors globally.
Remy: Yeah. And Ian we're talking about 2026, the time when all of us are looking at diversification of assets. But when it comes to tokenization tell us about the use cases. And for our viewers out there who are currently watching, what impact do you think this will have long term in terms of the future of finance?
Ian: Yeah, tokenizing assets is pretty simple. Essentially, you just make sure that you put them in a custodian. You then issue a token that represents exposure to that asset on crypto rails. And once you do that, these assets can move 24/7. And some venues they can trade 24/7. You can use them as collateral in DeFi. You just make them a more seamlessly accessible vehicle that can move around 24/7 and, you know, TradFi, as you mentioned- New York Stock Exchangeand
other venues are trying to move towards 24/7 trading right now. If you want to enable 24/7 trading already outside the U.S., that is happening. But on tokenized stocks and ETFs on crypto exchanges. So it really is just a way to put an existing financial asset on new crypto rails, just like a stablecoin did that for the U.S. dollar. We're seeing the same move happen on other liquid asset classes. Tokenized treasuries was the first one that Ondo started in. We're also the market leader in that category. That one has grown now to over $10 billion in TVL. We then issued these tokenized stocks in a very novel way, and we're seeing very aggressive growth in that category now as well. Tokenization ends up just being a way to make these assets move around 24/7 and make them much more accessible to a global audience that wants access to them.
Remy: Yeah. So for our audience that is watching and is trying to make sense of it. You and I were sitting here at the New York Stock Exchange, the center of TradFi. So what does it mean with the exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, getting in on this tokenized market?
Ian: Quite frankly, we love it because we right now are dealing with blockchain rails that can operate 24/7, as I mentioned, but still a TradFi legacy infrastructure where all these assets are being traded. That is not 24/7, it is 24/5 at best, right? So we as the issuer of these assets really have to learn how to deal with that liquidity gap and the difference between opening hours, so that as an issuer is, quite frankly, the main difficulty that we have to deal with. If TradFi rails increasingly move towards 24/7, that is a huge benefit to us, quite frankly, because ultimately, what tokenization does in an ideal world is just move the assets from a TradFi environment with all of the price discovery that happens on the New York Stock Exchange and other venues to crypto rails, where they can then be made accessible to a global audience. So all of these market structure changes, these move stores 24/7 trading systems. We are a very big fan of them. Quite frankly. They make our lives significantly easier.
Remy: And you mentioned market structure. We are paying attention to the regulatory landscape, especially given all the events that happened on Friday. And of course, the gathering taking place today at the white House. But what are your expectations for 2026 when it comes to legislation here in the U.S.?
Ian: Yeah. The market structure bill, obviously, we hope it passes in the best possible form that is on the table. It is a much more complex bill than the stablecoin bill was. It includes very good things on tokenized equities as well. It's important for the U.S. to remain competitive, quite frankly, because all of the growth that is happening in tokenized stocks and ETFs right now is outside of the U.S. And we saw a similar dynamic happen with stablecoins. That's why the stablecoin bill ultimately was passed to provide that regulatory framework in the U.S. so that the U.S. could compete on the global stage. And you start to see the early inklings of something like that happening on tokenized stocks and ETFs as well, where the growth is offshore. So the market structure bill is very important for the US to remain competitive in that arena. It contains very good things. We at Ondo really hope that it can pass in 2026. Remy: And speaking of the global stage, tomorrow the Ondo Summit kicks off here in New York City, and it's a gathering where policymakers, DeFi, TradFi, and the media will be gathering. So give us a taste of what we can expect tomorrow.
Ian: Yeah, I know the it's our second annual Ondo Summit. We are very, very excited for it. We have about 400 people from traditional finance in the blockchain industry all gathering policymakers and the like. We'll have executives from BlackRock, from WisdomTree, Franklin Templeton, the DTCC, all the major exchanges and crypto companies. So we're very excited for it. It tends to be a gathering early in the year where people can share their perspectives on what to expect for 2026. We're very excited to hear from all the industry leaders combined. We'll have a couple of announcements ourselves to make, but more on that tomorrow.
Remy: And of course, before I let you go, you mentioned 2026, and the first month of the year has been quite eventful across all asset classes, across politics, across policy and international geopolitical events. But as we head into the rest of this year when it comes to the tokenized market, what are your expectations and what is your outlook?
Ian: Yeah, you've mentioned the volatility. Quite frankly, I expect that to continue. And it just shows that investors globally really want to be able to freely move between crypto assets, stocks, ETFs, metals, commodities, whatever it is that they want to invest in, particularly if the crypto market right now is in a bit of a downturn, people are looking to seamlessly access other asset classes as well. the sentiment in crypto changes, we expect the other move to happen, right?
That's why the tokenization of these stocks in ETFs is so important. That's why we expect more and more crypto exchanges to start listing these tokenized stocks and ETFs. They all want to compete with normal brokerage accounts, particularly if crypto is in a downturn They want to be able to offer diversification to their user base, which is in the hundreds of millions of users. So 2026, I think, will be the year where tokenized stocks and ETF hit the mainstream, driven primarily by major crypto exchanges starting to list them.
Remy: Well,Ian, always great having you here. Thank you so much for joining me. And thank you so much for joining me ahead of the Ondo summit.
Ian: Thank you so much. My pleasure.