Nathan Allman, founder and CEO of Ondo Finance, has died at the age of 32. In the crypto industry, he was known as one of the people who believed early in the tokenization of real-world assets and began building a full-fledged business around it.
The Ondo team announced his death on X. For employees, it was an unexpected blow. Many on the project associated Ondo not only with the product but also with Allman himself, his approach to the market, and how he envisioned the future of blockchain finance.
Over the past few years, about $3.86 billion in assets have been transferred to the blockchain through Ondo. This includes tokenized US bonds, stocks, and commodities. Currently, more than 111,000 holders use these RWA assets.
When Allman launched Ondo in 2021, tokenization of real-world assets was not yet a major topic. For most of the market, it looked like an experiment at the intersection of crypto and traditional finance. Later, large Wall Street companies, including BlackRock, began to take an interest in this direction.
Ondo quickly became one of the main projects in the RWA sector. The company focused on tokenized US bonds and infrastructure that allows traditional financial instruments to be transferred to the blockchain.
Before Ondo, Allman worked with digital assets at Goldman Sachs. Earlier, he created the crypto hedge fund ChainStreet Capital, where he was involved in algorithmic trading.
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After his death, the company will be temporarily managed by Ondo president Ian De Bode.
Inside Ondo, it is said that Allman was more than just a leader for the team. Many employees worked with him from the early stages of the project and were used to him setting the direction, debating product details, and personally getting involved in important decisions.
According to De Bode, Allman remained involved in the platform’s work until the end and continued to influence how Ondo developed.
The company does not plan to change course. The team says they will continue to develop the project in the direction Allman set from the very beginning.
Ondo vice president of marketing Ben Grossman noted that Allman left a significant mark on the tokenized asset market and greatly influenced the people who worked alongside him.
The company did not disclose the cause of death. Allman’s family asked not to share further details and to respect their privacy.
For many in the crypto industry, the news of Allman‘s death was also unexpected because Ondo has only been gaining influence in the RWA market in recent years. Allman himself remained a prominent figure in the sector and regularly participated in discussions about the future of tokenized assets and the development of this field as a whole.
