Buy Ondo

ONDO is an Ethereum governance token. It is associated with the Ondo ecosystem, which includes a commercial financial technology company, a separate foundation, an onchain DAO and several tokenised investment products.

Ondo Finance builds services that put traditional financial assets on public blockchains. Its products include OUSG, USDY and tokenised stocks and funds. This area is often called real-world asset tokenisation.

ONDO is not one of those investments. It does not represent a government bond, a share, a fund unit or a claim on the assets held for OUSG or USDY. Its main documented purpose is governance.

What does ONDO govern?

ONDO holders can delegate voting power and vote on proposals in the Ondo DAO. The DAO's main operational responsibility is Flux Finance, an onchain lending protocol. Its powers include changing supported lending markets, interest-rate models, price oracles, reserve settings and smart contract administration.

Governance also covers the DAO treasury and ONDO token administration. Proposals are voted onchain and, if approved, wait in a timelock before execution. The official DAO documentation explains the process.

The scope is important. An ONDO vote is not a shareholder vote in Ondo Finance. It does not give holders control over every product carrying the Ondo name. The companies and legal entities issuing OUSG, USDY and tokenised securities have their own managers, terms and regulatory obligations.

What rights does ONDO provide?

ONDO gives holders voting power in the areas assigned to the DAO. It does not provide equity in Ondo Finance or the Ondo Foundation, and holders have no automatic right to product fees, company revenue, dividends or Treasury interest.

You do not need ONDO to access an Ondo investment product. Eligibility for those products depends on identity checks, jurisdiction and investor status. OUSG is restricted to eligible accredited investors and qualified purchasers. USDY is available only to eligible non-US investors, with further restrictions in some countries.

The official ONDO documentation describes it as a governance token. Holding the token by itself does not generate native staking rewards or interest.

Who controls the Ondo ecosystem?

Ondo Finance and the Ondo Foundation are separate organisations. Ondo Finance is the commercial company that develops products and provides services. The Foundation is a nonprofit Cayman Islands foundation company with no beneficial owners. It holds ONDO issuance rights and supports the DAO, according to its governance proposal.

Founder Nathan Allman died in May 2026. Ian De Bode, who had been President, became CEO. Ondo's leadership announcement says the existing leadership team remained in place and a new director joined the board.

ONDO holders govern only the functions assigned to the DAO. Company directors and executives remain responsible for corporate decisions, while product issuers and service providers retain operational control over their products.

Contract and administrative controls

ONDO is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. Its verified contract is not upgradeable through a proxy, but it uses administrative roles. The code includes a role-controlled mint function, permission management and controls connected to the original token lock-ups.

The Foundation says ONDO has no scheduled or planned inflation. However, the presence of a mint function means this is a governance and administration policy, not an immutable supply limit enforced by code.

Do not confuse the ONDO contract with Ondo's investment-token contracts. For example, USDY has separate administrative powers that can block addresses and freeze tokens in cases such as theft. ONDO does not give its holders control over an individual investor's USDY account or a right to redeem USDY's backing.

Track record

ONDO transfers opened in January 2024 after a DAO vote. Tokens allocated to the team and early investors were placed on multi-year release schedules, so not all allocated tokens became tradeable at launch.

In December 2025, the US Securities and Exchange Commission closed an investigation into Ondo Finance without filing charges, according to the company's announcement. Closure does not amount to an endorsement of ONDO or any Ondo product.

In April 2026, attackers stole assets from a separate Solana trading protocol, including USDY. Ondo says it paused USDY where appropriate and froze the stolen USDY held at an attacker address. Ondo also said its response was slower than it wanted. This was not an exploit of the ONDO token contract. Ondo's security report describes its response and the administrative powers used.

Ondo has since launched the Ondo Network, an execution environment for financial applications. It uses secure hardware environments and independent attestors, while asset transfers settle on public blockchains. Ondo Perps was its first application. Ondo says the Network is not a standalone blockchain today, and describes wider participation, further verification and proof-of-stake elements as possible future developments. The announcement does not make ONDO a required gas or staking token.

Risks to understand

• No claim on underlying assets. ONDO cannot be redeemed for the bonds, cash, stocks or fund interests used by other Ondo products.
• No automatic income. Revenue earned by Ondo Finance or its products does not have to be distributed to ONDO holders.
• Token releases. Locked allocations can become tradeable over time, which can increase the amount available for sale.
• Concentrated voting power. Voting influence follows token ownership and delegation. Large holders can have much more influence than small holders.
• Separate centres of control. The DAO, Foundation, company and product issuers have different powers. Tokenholders cannot use a DAO vote to override every corporate or product decision.
• Smart contract and operational risk. ONDO governance, Flux Finance and Ondo's investment products use different contracts and service providers. Problems in one part of the ecosystem may still affect confidence in the token.
• No government protection. ONDO is not a bank deposit and is not covered by the Financial Claims Scheme.

Send ONDO on the right network

ONDO's original contract is on Ethereum. Use the network shown by CoinJar for deposits and withdrawals. A token with the same name on another network may be a bridged representation, an unrelated token or a scam.

The Ethereum contract address published by the Ondo Foundation is 0xfAbA6f8e4a5E8Ab82F62fe7C39859FA577269BE3. Check the full address rather than relying on the ticker. Our guide to transferring crypto on the wrong network explains what to check.

Buying ONDO on CoinJar

CoinJar has operated since 2013 and lists ONDO against Australian dollars, so you can buy, sell and hold it without converting through another cryptocurrency first. Current charges are on our fees page, and live Australian dollar rates are on our cryptocurrency prices page.