Nathan Allman, the founder of Ondo Finance and one of the most prominent figures in the tokenized real-world assets space, has died. Ian De Bode, who has served as the company’s president since November 2025, will take over as CEO.
The circumstances surrounding Allman’s death have not been disclosed. What is clear is that Ondo Finance, a company he built from scratch in 2021, now faces a leadership transition at one of the most consequential moments in the short history of tokenized finance.
From Goldman Sachs to RWA pioneer
Allman founded Ondo Finance after stints on Goldman Sachs’ digital assets team and in private credit. The thesis was straightforward but ambitious: take institutional-grade financial products and deliver them onchain.
The company launched its first products in 2021. By 2023, it had begun tokenizing US Treasuries, a move that placed it squarely at the center of what has become one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors. More recently, the company expanded into tokenized stocks and ETFs, broadening its product suite well beyond fixed-income instruments.
De Bode’s path to the top
Ian De Bode is not a newcomer to Ondo. He joined as Chief Strategy Officer in September 2023, bringing experience in institutional and digital assets from his time at McKinsey. By November 2025, he had been elevated to president.
What this means for investors
Ondo Finance’s partnership roster reads like a who’s who of traditional finance. The company has collaborated with JPMorgan, struck an agreement with Broadridge in April 2026, and established a partnership with Franklin Templeton in March 2026.
The ONDO token, which functions as the governance token for Ondo’s decentralized autonomous organization, has a capped total supply of 10 billion tokens. It gives holders a voice in governance decisions across the protocol.
Products like USDY and OUSG, which Ondo has developed for tokenized yield and US government securities exposure, represent the kind of offerings that bridge the gap between DeFi infrastructure and TradFi demand.