Ondo Finance said users of its pre-alpha perpetual futures platform can now use tokenized stocks as collateral for trading, a move the company described as the first use of tokenized equities in that role on a perpetuals venue.
The new feature is available through Ondo Perps, the company’s derivatives platform for eligible users outside the United States, Panama and other restricted jurisdictions. The platform allows traders to access perpetual contracts linked to real-world assets, including commodities such as oil and gold, as well as well-known equities such as Apple and Tesla.
The announcement expands the role of tokenized stocks beyond simple on-chain ownership. Instead of only holding digital representations of equities, eligible users can now pledge those assets as collateral to open leveraged derivatives positions. In practical terms, a trader holding a tokenized stock may be able to keep that exposure while using it to support a separate trading position on the same platform.
Ondo said early users of Ondo Perps will be eligible for $150,000 in USDC trading rewards during the platform’s first week of activity. The company is positioning the product as part of a broader effort to bring traditional market exposure into blockchain-based trading environments while maintaining access restrictions for jurisdictions where the service is not offered.
The launch comes as tokenized real-world assets, often called RWAs, continue to move from a niche crypto concept into a more active area of financial infrastructure. Tokenized Treasury products, tokenized funds and tokenized equities have all drawn attention as firms seek to represent conventional assets on blockchains and make them easier to transfer, trade or use as collateral.
Ondo’s update is notable because collateral use is one of the main ways financial assets become more useful in trading markets. A stock or fund that can only be bought and held has limited functionality. A stock that can also be pledged against another position becomes part of a wider capital management system.
For traders, that can increase flexibility. It can also increase risk.
Using tokenized shares as collateral gives users a way to access derivatives without first selling their equity exposure. But if the value of the pledged stock falls sharply, the collateral supporting the leveraged position may become insufficient. That could trigger margin calls or automatic liquidation, depending on platform rules and market conditions.
What Ondo Perps is offering
Ondo Perps is designed to run continuously, reflecting the always-open structure common in crypto derivatives markets. The platform offers perpetual futures tied to U.S. equities, ETFs and commodities, with leverage of up to 20 times for eligible users.
Perpetual futures, often called perps, are derivative contracts with no fixed expiry date. Unlike traditional futures, which settle on a specific date, perpetual contracts can remain open as long as margin requirements are met. Their pricing is usually kept close to the underlying asset through funding payments between traders who are long and traders who are short.
The format has become one of the most active areas of digital asset trading because it gives users a way to take leveraged long or short positions without owning the underlying asset. Ondo is applying that structure to instruments tied to traditional markets, including stocks, ETFs and commodities.
The company said the platform aims to provide the liquidity and efficiency traders expect from established derivatives markets. That will be a key test. Derivatives platforms need deep order books, reliable pricing, strong risk controls and tight spreads to compete with existing venues.
The addition of tokenized stock collateral gives Ondo Perps another feature that separates it from basic trading platforms. A trader who holds tokenized equity may be able to use that asset to back a position in oil, gold, another stock index product or a single-name equity-linked contract.
This creates a more integrated trading environment, where assets can serve more than one purpose.
Why collateral use matters
Collateral is central to derivatives trading. It is the asset a trader posts to secure a position and protect the platform and counterparties against losses. In traditional finance, cash, Treasuries, certain bonds and high-quality securities are commonly used as collateral, depending on the venue and the product.
In crypto markets, stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, along with major digital assets, have often served as the main collateral types. Ondo’s move brings tokenized versions of traditional equities into that framework.
That shift could help address one of the major limitations of tokenized securities: low on-chain activity.
A tokenized stock that simply sits in a wallet may show that ownership can be represented digitally, but it does not necessarily show that the asset is being used productively in on-chain markets. Allowing tokenized stocks to function as margin collateral gives them a more active role.
It also gives traders more choices in how they manage positions. For example, a user who wants to maintain exposure to a tokenized Apple-linked asset may not need to sell it to free up stablecoins for a separate derivatives trade. Instead, the user may pledge the equity token and use it to support another position.
That can improve capital efficiency, but it also links risks across positions. If the tokenized stock declines while the derivatives position also moves against the trader, losses can compound quickly.
This is especially important in high-leverage products. At 20 times leverage, even a relatively small adverse move in the market can have a large effect on the trader’s margin. When the collateral itself is also volatile, the margin buffer can shrink faster than expected.
Growth in tokenized assets
The launch arrives during a wider buildout in tokenized real-world assets. The category includes digital tokens representing claims on or exposure to assets such as government bonds, money market funds, private credit, commodities, real estate and equities.
The market remains uneven. Some tokenized products are actively used in lending, collateral and settlement flows. Others exist mostly as proof-of-concept holdings with limited transfer activity.
Recent sector data has shown that a large portion of tokenized assets may remain inactive over short periods. A July 2026 report tracking roughly $60 billion in tokenized assets found that more than half, about $32.9 billion, showed no weekly transfer activity. That suggests many tokenized assets are not yet being used regularly on-chain.
Ondo’s collateral feature is aimed directly at that problem. If tokenized stocks can be used to support trading positions, they may become more active within digital market infrastructure.
Demand for perpetual contracts tied to real-world assets has also grown. Quarterly volume in this segment rose from $12.37 billion in the final quarter of 2025 to more than $202 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to market data referenced by the sector. That increase points to rising trader interest in on-chain derivatives linked to traditional assets.
Still, rapid growth in volume does not guarantee long-term stability. New derivatives markets often experience periods of thin liquidity, sudden volatility and uneven execution quality. For Ondo Perps, the durability of the platform will depend on whether it can maintain reliable pricing and order-book depth as activity grows.
Ondo’s broader push into tokenized markets
Ondo Finance, based in New York, has spent the past year expanding its tokenized securities and real-world asset operations.
Last year, the firm introduced a platform designed to provide continuous access to more than 100 U.S. stocks and ETFs for eligible users across Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America. That offering was part of a broader effort to make U.S. market exposure available to international users through tokenized instruments.
More recently, Ondo introduced tokenized versions of BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and Micron shares under a U.S. custodial model launched earlier this year. That structure is intended to connect tokenized products with regulated custody and underlying securities arrangements.
The Ondo Perps rollout builds on that strategy by combining tokenized equity exposure with derivatives trading. Rather than treating tokenized stocks as isolated assets, the new platform brings them into a broader trading system.
For eligible traders, this can create a single venue where they can hold tokenized stocks, use them as collateral and trade perpetual contracts linked to equities, ETFs and commodities.
The company said the platform is intended to reduce some of the limitations found in traditional derivatives venues by bringing multiple functions into one environment. In that model, traders can manage exposure, hedge positions or take leveraged views on different markets without moving assets between several platforms.
Key risks for traders
The main appeal of the new feature is capital efficiency. The main risk is leverage.
When traders use tokenized stocks as collateral, they are exposed to both the performance of the collateral and the performance of the derivatives position. If the collateral drops in value, the account’s margin strength weakens. If the open trade also loses value, the account may reach liquidation thresholds faster.
This is different from using a stablecoin as collateral. A stablecoin is designed to maintain a fixed value against a currency such as the U.S. dollar. A stock-linked token can move sharply during earnings events, macroeconomic news, sector selloffs or broader market stress.
Single-stock collateral can be especially sensitive. A tokenized Tesla or Apple-linked asset may be liquid under normal conditions, but its price can still change quickly. During volatile trading sessions, the value of collateral may decline at the same time that funding rates, spreads or contract prices move against leveraged positions.
There is also platform risk. Pre-alpha products are early-stage systems and may be subject to changes in design, liquidity, risk parameters and access. Traders using such platforms typically need to account for operational risks, including system interruptions, oracle pricing issues, smart contract vulnerabilities and changes in margin requirements.
Ondo’s ability to manage those risks will be closely watched as trading begins.
Regulation remains central
The regulatory backdrop is one of the most important issues for tokenized stocks and on-chain derivatives.
Tokenized securities may use blockchain infrastructure, but that does not remove them from securities laws. U.S. regulators have repeatedly emphasized that tokenization does not change the legal character of an asset if the underlying instrument is a security.
That means firms offering tokenized equity products must consider custody rules, disclosure obligations, transfer restrictions, broker-dealer requirements and cross-border access controls. Ondo’s platform is not available to users in the United States, Panama and other restricted locations, reflecting the sensitivity of offering equity-linked derivatives and tokenized securities across jurisdictions.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has previously said tokenization can improve the ability to use assets as collateral, but it has also made clear that tokenized securities must comply with federal securities laws.
For Ondo and similar firms, the challenge is to build products that deliver the speed and flexibility of blockchain-based markets while staying within legal boundaries in each region where services are offered.
Different countries may treat tokenized stocks, synthetic equity exposure and perpetual futures differently. Some jurisdictions may see them as securities, derivatives, structured products or a combination of categories. That can make international access complicated.
Regulatory responses over the coming months will matter. If authorities allow properly structured tokenized collateral systems to develop, more platforms may follow Ondo’s approach. If regulators raise concerns about leverage, retail access or securities compliance, growth could slow or move toward more restricted institutional channels.
A test for tokenized finance
Ondo’s move represents a practical test of whether tokenized stocks can become useful beyond simple buy-and-hold exposure.
The idea behind real-world asset tokenization has always been broader than putting traditional assets on a blockchain. The larger goal is to make those assets programmable, transferable and usable across financial applications. Collateral use is one of the clearest examples of that vision.
If the platform works as designed, tokenized stocks could become part of an active trading loop: held for market exposure, pledged as collateral, used to open derivatives positions and integrated into broader risk strategies.
If liquidity is weak, pricing is unreliable or traders face unexpected liquidation risks, adoption could remain limited.
For now, Ondo has taken a meaningful step in connecting tokenized equities with on-chain derivatives. The launch gives eligible traders a new way to use tokenized stocks and offers a clearer example of how real-world assets may function inside blockchain-based markets.
The broader question is whether this model can scale safely. That will depend on trader demand, regulatory acceptance, collateral controls and the platform’s ability to deliver the market quality it has promised.
Explore deeper into tokenized equities and collateralized trading with our guide on tokenized equities and enhance your strategy.
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