When I previously wrote about OPAIPon’s launch, I specifically mentioned: “Do not use it as collateral.” Now you can. Over the past couple of days, Ondo made two moves: One: OPAIPon is now officially enabled as collateral, with a 30% haircut and a cap of approximately 350 units. Two: RWA perps have been integrated into Jumper via LI.FI’s Perps SDK. The first is far more significant than the second. Let me break it down. — I’ve written multiple times before about Ondo’s expansion of collateral assets—SPYon, QQQon, GLDon, SLVon—each added one by one. With each new asset class, the same capital gains another use. But all of those were public market assets: with transparent pricing, liquidity, and valuation anchors. OPAIPon is different. It’s a pre-IPO note. No public market pricing exists; liquidity is inherently thin; its price is determined by on-chain order book participants bidding against each other. The fact that this asset can now serve as collateral? I believe this step is more aggressive than any previous one. // What can it do? The most direct application: basis trading. I’ve previously explained how basis trading works with public equities—now the underlying asset is private. Buy OPAIPon spot, while shorting the OPENAI perpetual. When the perpetual price exceeds the spot price, you profit from the convergence of the spread. The key: OPAIPon itself is collateral. Your spot position and short margin are funded by the same capital—no additional cash required. Private market pricing is significantly less efficient than public markets. Theoretically, this creates wider spread opportunities. But conversely, risks are also more concentrated. // I need to lay out the other side. 30% haircut: deposit $100, only $70 counts as margin. This is much higher than for public market assets—clearly, the platform recognizes greater volatility and liquidity risk. Spread convergence is not guaranteed. Spot and perpetual prices may diverge for extended periods—or even move in opposite directions. The thinner the liquidity, the higher this risk becomes. OPAIPon is an unsecured note issued by a BVI entity. If the issuer defaults, your collateral could instantly become worthless—this is a completely different credit risk profile than tokenized Treasuries or tokenized U.S. equities. If margin falls below requirements, the system will automatically liquidate your collateral into stablecoins. In such a thin market, the execution price could be drastically different from what you expect. — Jumper has added another layer of incentives: Approximately $57k USDC per week, plus a 1.1x xPerps multiplier. The platform is also offering $220k USDC in three-pool rewards this week: $100k for liquidity, $100k for trading volume, $20k for activities—this week’s activity pool focuses on OpenAI spot and perpetuals. The money is substantial. But I care more about whether volume persists after these incentives disappear. Rewards can buy trials—they can’t buy retention. — I’ve followed Ondo closely for a long time—from Treasuries to public equities to ETFs to pre-IPO assets—layer by layer building their product stack. Infrastructure like DTCC and FINRA is also being integrated. Now, by incorporating private assets into the collateral system, they’re pushing proven public market strategies one step further into private markets. This step has been taken. But private assets’ liquidity, pricing, and credit risk are orders of magnitude different from public markets. Just because SPYon works doesn’t mean OPAIPon will. I’ll be closely monitoring OPAIPon’s order book depth and actual collateral utilization. These two metrics tell you far more than any incentive pool ever could. Data sourced from official channels only. Not investment advice. Please invest within your means. DYOR @OndoPerps #ONDO