Ondo Enters the ETF Race as 21Shares Takes the RWA Thesis to the SEC

21Shares filed a preliminary S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot ETF tied directly to ONDO, the native token of the real-world asset platform Ondo Finance.

If approved and listed on Nasdaq, the product would mark one of the first attempts to package RWA token exposure into a fully regulated U.S. ETF wrapper.

How the Ondo Trust Is Designed to Work

The proposed 21Shares Ondo Trust is structured as a straightforward spot vehicle. It will hold ONDO tokens directly, offering investors exposure without the need to manage private keys, wallets, or on-chain infrastructure. Management is explicitly passive, with no leverage, derivatives, or yield-enhancing strategies layered on top.

Custody of the underlying tokens is assigned to Coinbase Custody, while performance will be benchmarked against the CME CF Ondo Finance-Dollar Reference Rate. Share creation and redemption are designed to operate both in cash and in-kind, aligning the structure with other spot crypto ETF filings that regulators have already reviewed.

Why This Filing Matters Beyond Ondo

This application goes beyond another single-asset ETF attempt. It is one of the first spot ETF filings centered on an ERC-20 token whose core use case is tokenized real-world assets, including exposure to instruments like U.S. Treasuries and bonds. In regulatory terms, it pushes the ETF conversation past pure crypto commodities and into tokenized finance.

For institutional allocators, that distinction matters. Regulated access to RWA-linked tokens lowers operational barriers and reframes ONDO from a niche DeFi asset into something closer to a structured financial product.

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Institutional and Political Undercurrents

Ondo Finance’s background also plays into the narrative. The project was founded by former Goldman Sachs executives, a detail that continues to resonate with traditional finance firms exploring tokenization as an efficiency layer rather than a speculative frontier.

There is also a political dimension. Ondo has been linked to the World Liberty Financial, a project supported by the Trump family, which reportedly holds ONDO tokens in its treasury. While not directly relevant to the ETF structure, the association adds visibility at a time when digital asset policy is increasingly shaped by political alignment as much as market demand.

Structural Takeaway

The 21Shares filing is less about near-term flows and more about classification. If the SEC allows a spot ETF tied to an RWA token, it implicitly acknowledges tokenized assets as a distinct, investable category within public markets.

For Ondo, approval would validate its positioning at the intersection of DeFi and traditional fixed-income markets. For the broader industry, it would signal that the ETF gateway is beginning to open beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, toward tokenized representations of real-world finance itself.

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