coindesk.com
Ondo Finance expands its U.S. Treasury-backed tokens to the Solana blockchain and ecosystem applications, letting investors use them as collateral and in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Tokenized Treasuries spearheaded this year's real-world asset boom to bring traditional assets like bonds and credit to blockchain rails.
Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) platform Ondo Finance said Tuesday it expanded its U.S. Treasury-backed tokens to the Solana (SOL) blockchain and its decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Orca and Raydium.
Solana is the first layer 1 network after Ethereum where investors can access Ondo's yield-generating stablecoin alternative U.S. Dollar Yield (USDY) and a tokenized version of BalckRock's (BLK) short-term Treasury bond exchange-traded fund named OUSG. USDY is also available on Ethereum layer 2 network Mantle and OUSG on Polygon.
Ondo's expansion comes fresh on the heels of stablecoin issuer Circle introducing its euro-backed stablecoin EURC to the Solana ecosystem.
Tokenized U.S. Treasuries spearheaded this year's tokenization boom, as crypto native firms and big banks like JPMorgan and Citigroup are racing to bring more traditional assets such as bonds and credit on blockchain rails eyeing more efficient operations and lower costs. The competition also increases among blockchain networks to attract RWAs.
Read more: The Year of Institutional Investment in Real-World Assets
The combined market cap of tokenized treasuries offerings mushroomed to over $760 million from $110 million earlier this year, with Ondo being the second largest issuer after traditional finance giant Franklin Templeton, data by RWA.xyz shows. The growth was fueled by soaring bond yields on traditional markets as the U.S. central bank jacked up interest rates while yields in DeFi lending markets plummeted during the crypto winter.
With crypto markets rejuvenated and DeFi activity picking up, Ondo expects users to tap its tokens as a form of cash in decentralized exchanges, collateral for lending and means for payments and settlements.
“The Solana DeFi ecosystem has demonstrated great resilience and growth potential, thanks to its innovative scaling and low transaction costs," Nathan Allman, founder and CEO of Ondo Finance, said in a statement. "Integrating Ondo's offerings with Solana not only aligns with our strategic growth but also paves the way for novel decentralized finance applications leveraging tokenized US Treasuries, benefiting a wide array of developers and users.”