Most large American companies are private, and ordinary investors rarely get near them. Ondo Finance says 87% of US companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue are privately held. Its answer is Ondo Private Markets, introduced on 5 October 2026, which gives eligible investors tokenized exposure to private companies before they list.
How the product works
Buyers do not receive shares. They get tokenized notes, and each note’s payout is tied to the per-share value realized on the referenced company’s common shares at a qualifying liquidity event. The notes are obligations of their issuer. They carry no voting rights, no ownership in the underlying company and no right to receive its shares.
The tokens can sit in a self-custody wallet and be moved between eligible holders. They are meant to trade around the clock on secondary markets, so an investor can add to a position, trim it or leave without waiting for an IPO. Ondo also says the tokens are designed to work with supported onchain applications.
First market and what follows
The first product references an unnamed pre-IPO artificial intelligence company. Ondo said secondary trading would begin in the week of the launch, though coverage by CoinInsider noted that no confirmed trading date had been given. Robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure names are to follow, and the company’s own blog also lists defense, energy and space.
Ondo points to the long-run numbers as its case. Over the 20 years to December 2025, US private equity funds returned 13.2% a year net of fees, against 11.3% for an S&P 500 public-market equivalent. The company also argues that exits are the second barrier after entry: with thin secondary markets, smaller holders can wait years for an IPO.
“In the US, the majority of the investment options accessible for retail are public companies, yet 87% of companies with over $100m in revenue are private,” said Ian De Bode, Ondo’s Acting CEO and President.
Who can buy
The restrictions are significant. The product is open only to eligible non-US investors in permitted jurisdictions. The tokens are not registered under the US Securities Act and cannot be offered or sold to US persons without an exemption, and that holds even though they can be held in self-custody wallets. Ondo’s own disclosures warn that holders can lose their entire purchase price.
Ondo builds the product on the infrastructure behind its tokenized stocks and Treasuries, which it puts at about $3.7 billion in total value locked and more than one million cumulative holders. Its Ondo Stocks platform already offers more than 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs.
Sources
- Ondo Private Markets To Bring Private-Company Exposure Onchain, Starting with AI
- Ondo Opens Tokenized Private Markets
- Introducing Ondo Private Markets: Private Company Exposure Trading 24/7
