ONDO ETF Goes Cash-Only with Dual Custody – Nasdaq Drama

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The revised S-1, that sly creature of paperwork, prances before regulatory pedestals with the air of a magician unveiling a rabbit that sighs, “Investors, behold your ONDO-woven destiny.” The document, slippery with ambition, whispers of a dual custody ballet and a cash masquerade, as if finance could don a velvet smoking jacket and bow to the curtain of Nasdaq.

  • The proposal introduces a dual-custody architecture utilizing both BitGo and Coinbase to secure the fund’s underlying digital assets.
  • By adopting a cash-only creation and redemption model, the fund shifts the technical burden of ONDO token acquisition to third-party intermediaries.
  • The transition from a private trust to a public S-1 filing signals an effort to bring institutional-grade RWA yield products to Nasdaq.

Crypto asset manager 21Shares submits a revised S-1 to the SEC, serenely seeking approval to launch the 21Shares Ondo ETF. If the gods of regulation grant permission, this product would become the first U.S. spot ETF to trace the steps of ONDO, the shy yet audacious token of the Ondo Finance platform that dares to tokenize real-world assets.

The amended filing embraces its cash-based creation and redemption conceit and unveils a dual custody structure. The ETF-should it meet its moment in Nasdaq’s glare-will invite both institutions and ordinary mortals into the regulated ballroom of the RWA space, without the need for wallet-whispering or cryptographic acrobatics.

This follows the initial July 2025 filing concerning the 21Shares Ondo Trust. The updated proposal, with a flourish of public-ness, transmutes the private trust into a public ETF, echoing the era’s appetite for blockchain-inflected yield products and tokenized securities.

Structural and regulatory updates

The amended filing presents a chorus of structural refinements to satisfy modern expectations for spot crypto ETFs. The fund will employ a cash creation and redemption mechanism-an artful ruse that sidesteps wallet-wrangling and broker-trading frictions.

Under this scheme, authorized participants will tender cash, birthing shares which the fund then uses to purchase ONDO tokens via a third-party intermediary. No brokers will tango with digital assets in the traditional sense, and trading costs or market slippage will, in theory, migrate to the shoulders of the authorized participants rather than dulling the fund’s net asset value.

Dual custody model

To polish security and resilience, 21Shares has shifted from a solitary custodian to a dual‑custody arrangement. Initially, Coinbase Custody Trust Company was cited as the lone guardian; in the amended tale, BitGo Bank & Trust enters as the second custodian.

Within the filing, the asset-management philosophy unfurls with a dramatic dichotomy: a ‘Cold Vault Balance’ and a ‘Hot Vault Balance,’ as if the coins themselves were characters walking a stage with two wardrobes and two temperaments.

Passive investment vehicle

The Ondo ETF remains a passive instrument, tracking the CME CF Ondo Finance Dollar Reference Rate. Investors are invited to ride the ONDO tide without wrestling with digital wallets or courting the siren of decentralized wallets-an arrangement that makes the tech feel almost optional, a garnish rather than a necessity.

Ondo Finance, germinated in 2021 by former Goldman Sachs colleagues Nathan Allman and Pinku Suran, has ascended within the RWA theatre by tokenizing traditional instruments such as U.S. Treasuries and money-market lacework. The ONDO token acts as the badge of this alchemy.

Recent platform traction

The Ondo stage has gained a tremor of momentum, especially after a conspicuous partnership with MetaMask. On February 3, MetaMask announced that non-US users could access more than 200 tokenized U.S. assets, including stock whispers like NVIDIA and Apple, along with gold and silver ETFs, directly through Ondo Global Markets.

The SEC’s judgment of the 21Shares Ondo ETF could travel one of three curves: the amendment could become effective in roughly 20 to 75 days, pointing to a launch window from late February to mid-April 2026.

Future market implications

Should approval arrive, the 21Shares Ondo ETF would consecrate ONDO as a regulated asset class and might unleash a wave of similar filings for other RWA-focused tokens. The on-chain cosmos could, in theory, entice trillions of traditional dollars into its shimmering circuitry.

Ultimately, the product’s fate will pirouette on the performance of the real-world assets sector and the temper of U.S. interest rates, those mercurial arbiters that determine whether Ondo’s yield-bearing dreams become a polished souvenir or a mirage under Nasdaq’s bright lights.

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2026-02-07 19:31