Ondo takes private-company exposure onchain, starting with AI

Private-company exposure has often been hard to access and trade. Ondo Finance introduced Ondo Private Markets on Oct. 5, starting with tokenized notes tied to a pre-IPO AI company, according to Ondo’s announcement.

The first market is expected to begin secondary trading this week. The company has not named the AI firm, and the notes are not shares in it: they provide economic exposure through an issuer’s obligation, without ownership or shareholder rights, The Block reported.

How will the notes track a private company?

Each note’s payout is linked to the per-share value realized on the referenced company’s common shares at a qualifying liquidity event, such as a future event that allows shares to be valued or sold. Ondo says eligible investors can hold notes in their own wallets or trade them on secondary markets. The product’s basic mechanics are:

1. A note provides economic exposure to one selected private company.
2. Eligible investors can hold it in a wallet or trade it on secondary markets, which Ondo says will be open 24/7.
3. Its payout is linked to the value realized per common share at a qualifying liquidity event.

Who can trade them, and what comes next?

The Block reports that access is limited to eligible non-U.S. investors in permitted jurisdictions. So while the tokens are designed for onchain transfer and around-the-clock secondary trading, access depends on investor eligibility and where the investor is located.

Ondo says it plans to add exposure to companies in robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure after the first AI market. The announcement describes those as future additions; it does not identify the companies or give launch dates. For now, the change is a new route to private-company exposure through tokenized notes, with trading expected to start before the referenced AI company goes public.

Sources

• Ondo’s announcement — ondo.finance
• reported — theblock.co