Ondo Finance introduced Ondo Private Markets, its first product line offering tokenized exposure to pre-IPO technology companies, with an unnamed artificial intelligence firm serving as the inaugural reference asset.

The platform issues tokenized notes whose payouts are linked to "the value realized per common share of the referenced company at a qualifying liquidity event," according to Ondo. The structure gives investors economic exposure without direct equity ownership of the underlying issuer.

Eligible investors can hold the notes in self-custody wallets and trade them on secondary markets around the clock. Ondo said the first notes are expected to start trading this week, with products tied to companies in robotics, cybersecurity, biotech, infrastructure and other sectors planned to follow.

How do the notes pay out?

Each note is calibrated against the per-share value realized at a qualifying liquidity event. Holders receive proceeds tied to that per-share valuation without holding voting rights or a direct equity position in the underlying company.

That separation between economic exposure and equity ownership keeps the product within tokenized-asset distribution rails rather than direct private-equity secondary transfers. Those secondary transfers typically require issuer-side approval and buy-side KYC tied to the cap table of the underlying company.

Where does the new line sit inside Ondo's stack?

The new line extends Ondo Stocks, the firm's tokenized equities and ETF platform, which carries more than $1 billion in total value locked and lists over 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs, according to the company. Pulling pre-IPO exposure onto the same rails gives Ondo a single venue for both public and private equity in tokenized form.

The unified venue cuts operational duplication. The same wallet infrastructure, order routing and 24/7 trading layer that supports ETFs can carry private-market notes without separate custody or settlement integrations.

Ondo previously disclosed plans with Franklin Templeton to launch tokenized ETFs accessible through crypto wallets with 24/7 trading, a partnership that underlines the firm's institutional push for round-the-clock settlement infrastructure across asset classes.

Who else is moving into private-company exposure?

Ondo's launch lands in a competitive segment. In April, Robinhood's venture fund deployed $75 million in OpenAI common stock to deliver retail exposure through its publicly traded closed-end fund. Citi was reported in June to be launching a blockchain marketplace for private-company shares.

The April-to-June sequence of competing moves demonstrates how quickly legacy intermediaries and crypto-native issuers are converging on the same opportunity: compliant rails for private-company exposure that has historically been reserved for venture capital and late-stage institutional buyers.

What hasn't been disclosed yet?

Ondo did not identify the pre-IPO AI company linked to the first set of notes, name the issuing legal entity, or disclose pricing, denomination or minimum subscription size for the initial offering. The platform also did not specify which secondary venue will host the 24/7 trading.

The offering remains accessible only to "eligible investors," a designation that in U.S. markets typically aligns with accredited-investor thresholds. Retail access to the pre-IPO AI exposure will therefore depend on whether Ondo eventually routes the notes through a publicly traded wrapper, similar to how Robinhood funnelled its OpenAI allocation through a closed-end fund in April.

The first Ondo Private Markets notes are expected to begin trading this week, with subsequent products spanning robotics, cybersecurity, biotech and infrastructure issuers scheduled to follow in the months ahead.