Ondo Finance was shopped to buyers after founder Nathan Allman's death, sources say

Three people with knowledge of the matter told CoinDesk that Ondo Finance, the New York-based tokenised asset platform, was approached to prospective acquirers following the unexpected death of its founder and chief executive Nathan Allman on 25 May of this year. Who initiated the outreach remains unestablished; Ondo’s spokesman flatly denied the company was ever seeking buyers, calling the claim “wholly untrue” and stating that no one at the firm had engaged or authorised anyone to conduct such talks.

Allman, who was 32, died without a will, triggering a probate process that ultimately transferred his controlling stake and ONDO token holdings to his parents, Kathleen and Lawrence Allman. In early August his estate sued acting chief executive Ian De Bode, alleging an unlawful grab for power and assets. A court order currently keeps De Bode in the operating seat but restricts him from making major corporate decisions while the control dispute is resolved, a constraint that, according to one of the sources, has likely suspended any sale process.

Ondo sits at the larger end of the real-world asset tokenisation market, with more than $3.8 billion across its products, including the OUSG fund which holds positions in BlackRock‘s tokenised BUIDL vehicle. The company has raised $34 million in publicly reported funding across equity and token rounds, with backers including Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, Coinbase Ventures, and Tiger Global, though no valuation has been disclosed. The reported sale approach landed during a period of elevated crypto merger activity; announced crypto mergers and acquisitions reached $12.9 billion in the second quarter, the sector’s second-largest quarterly total according to Architect Partners.

For counterparties and institutional allocators with exposure to Ondo’s products, the unresolved governance situation is the operative concern. Until the control dispute concludes, the restrictions on executive authority create ambiguity about who can commit the firm to significant decisions, a structural uncertainty that sits uncomfortably alongside a $3.8 billion asset base.