Nathan Allman, the founder of Ondo Finance and one of the most prominent figures in the tokenized real-world assets space, has died. Ian De Bode, who has served as the company’s president since November 2025, will take over as CEO.
The circumstances surrounding Allman’s death have not been disclosed. What is clear is that Ondo Finance, a company he built from scratch in 2021, now faces a leadership transition at one of the most consequential moments in the short history of tokenized finance.
From Goldman Sachs to RWA pioneer
Allman founded Ondo Finance after stints on Goldman Sachs’ digital assets team and in private credit. The thesis was straightforward but ambitious: take institutional-grade financial products and deliver them onchain.
The company launched its first products in 2021. By 2023, it had begun tokenizing US Treasuries, a move that placed it squarely at the center of what has become one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors. More recently, the company expanded into tokenized stocks and ETFs, broadening its product suite well beyond fixed-income instruments.
