Trust Wallet CEO and Ondo Finance CSO on Why It’s the Right Time to Bring U.S. Stocks and ETFs On-Chain

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has lengthy been hailed as a trillion-dollar alternative for crypto, however till lately it’s been largely out of attain for on a regular basis customers. Trust Wallet and Ondo Finance are aiming to change that by way of their current partnership. 

In this interview with BeInCrypto, Eowyn Chen, CEO of Trust Wallet, and Ian de Bode, Chief Strategy Officer of Ondo Finance, clarify why they consider their collaboration will flip the promise of tokenization into sensible monetary entry for tens of millions and what challenges nonetheless stand in the method.

What made this partnership between Trust Wallet and Ondo the proper match, and what downside are you fixing collectively that wasn’t addressed earlier than?

Eowyn Chen: This partnership connects two lacking items of the Web3 puzzle: high-quality, institutionally structured real-world belongings from Ondo, and intuitive, self-custodial entry for on a regular basis customers by way of Trust Wallet.

Together, we’re addressing a long-standing hole in entry. Traditional monetary markets typically exclude individuals by design — due to geography, regulation, or infrastructure. By bringing tokenized publicity to belongings like shares and ETFs instantly into Trust Wallet, we’re letting customers round the world faucet into markets they have been beforehand locked out of — while not having a brokerage account, and with out giving up management of their funds.

Ian de Bode: This integration is a powerful match as a result of it combines Trust Wallet’s international consumer attain with Ondo’s mission of increasing entry to conventional monetary providers. Trust Wallet is utilized by over 200 million customers worldwide, and Ondo Global Markets expands entry to U.S. capital markets to international, non-U.S. traders. Together, we’re enabling a brand new class of monetary entry.

We basically consider that Ondo Global Markets will do for US equities what stablecoins have completed for the U.S. greenback. Essentially, it’s about international entry to these belongings in a seamless method. Just as stablecoins radically opened entry to the US greenback, in the same method Ondo Global Markets is tokenizing US shares & ETFs that signify the financial publicity to the underlying belongings, and like stablecoins, makes them accessible on-chain in order that anybody globally can entry them.

RWA tokenization has been talked about for years. Why is now the second to convey tokenized shares and ETFs to tens of millions of customers, and what’s modified in the macro backdrop that makes this viable?

Ian de Bode: People underestimate simply how huge this market alternative actually is. The U.S. public equities market has grown to over $60 trillion. However, international traders have traditionally confronted boundaries to accessing these markets due to high charges, restricted entry, switch frictions, platform fragmentation, and geographic exclusions. These issues have persevered for many years, locking tens of millions out of capital markets and stifling innovation. 

Today, there are an estimated 400 to 500 million crypto trade accounts worldwide. And but, many of those international customers don’t even have conventional brokerage accounts. 

Eowyn Chen: That hole is strictly why the timing feels completely different now. We’ve hit an inflection level. On one aspect, regulatory readability and institutional-grade RWA infrastructure are lastly maturing. On the different, we’ve a rising consumer base — particularly in rising markets — that’s hungry for alternate options to risky native currencies or inaccessible inventory markets.

Ian de Bode: Which is why if you happen to can take shares and seamlessly tokenize them onto crypto rails, you’re not simply widening entry, you’re unlocking a wholly new monetary frontier.

Eowyn Chen: And the broader shift is that self-custody is now not a distinct segment idea. Wallets are evolving from being simply crypto instruments into full-fledged Web3 companions. This means the timing is correct to make merchandise like tokenized RWAs each accessible and helpful at scale.

Trust Wallet is positioning itself as the first main self-custody pockets to help tokenized RWAs throughout chains. How do you stability maintaining this easy for 200M customers whereas introducing such a fancy product?

Eowyn Chen: The key’s to meet customers the place they’re. Most individuals don’t get up asking for “tokenized RWAs” — they need instruments that assist them shield the worth of their belongings and entry alternatives. We’ve designed the expertise so customers don’t want to perceive the technical layers to profit. Discovery, community charges, and redemption mechanics are abstracted behind a well-known interface. And as a result of it’s all native to Trust Wallet, customers keep in charge of their belongings — no new accounts, no custodians, no compromises. 

We see this as a basis for the Web3 neobank of the future: onchain-native, self-custodial, however easy sufficient for anybody to use.

Tokenized belongings typically elevate skepticism — are they really backed, are they only synthetics, will they final? How does Ondo’s mannequin construct the belief and transparency wanted to get previous that skepticism?

Ian de Bode: Ondo is dedicated to setting the highest customary in tokenization, demonstrating that considerate, clear, and well-regulated wrapped tokens not solely supply fast advantages but additionally pave the method for broader monetary innovation. Not all tokenized equities are created equal. With Ondo Global Markets, we’ve spent a variety of time enthusiastic about how finest to convey real-world belongings like securities on-chain in a method that’s sensible, safe, liquid, and scalable.

Ondo tokenized shares are digital tokens that ship total-return publicity to publicly traded belongings. Each token mirrors the financial efficiency of its underlying asset.

As for the backing of our belongings, Ondo tokenized shares are all absolutely backed by their underlying shares and ETFs, along with money in transit. Further, the issuer is required to guarantee that there’s further collateral accessible — above and past this full backing — always to overcollateralize its obligations to token holders.

This collaboration positions Ondo as the issuer and Trust Wallet as the entry level. How does that bridge institutional-grade RWAs with a retail consumer who could by no means have touched a brokerage account earlier than?

Ian de Bode: For many youthful and worldwide customers, crypto has turn out to be their first gateway into monetary markets. These are people who could by no means have opened a brokerage account, or who face important boundaries to accessing U.S. equities, from high charges and fragmented platforms to outright geographic exclusions.

Eowyn Chen: And that’s precisely the place self-custody modifications the recreation. Traditionally, accessing U.S. shares or ETFs meant going by way of intermediaries, submitting KYC, and hoping your nation was on the permitted checklist.

Ian de Bode: Ondo Global markets is bridging that hole, offering the infrastructure for purposes like Trust Wallet to combine tokenized U.S. shares and ETFs whereas retaining entry to deep liquidity from conventional exchanges. This is about democratizing entry to U.S. capital markets, assembly customers the place they’re, and giving builders the instruments to construct the way forward for on-chain capital markets in a method that feels pure, intuitive, and accessible.

Eowyn Chen: From the consumer’s perspective, nothing modifications in how they work together with the blockchain. With tokenized RWAs in Trust Wallet, they merely uncover, maintain, and use these belongings like they might with any token — besides now they’re getting publicity to real-world market efficiency.

We’re not attempting to replicate the legacy system. We’re constructing a brand new path to entry — one which’s open, on-chain, and user-first from day one.

Between regulation, liquidity, and consumer schooling, which problem do you each see as the most pressing to remedy — and how are you approaching it?

Eowyn Chen: For us, it’s consumer schooling — arms down. Regulation will evolve, and liquidity will develop as adoption will increase. But even the finest infrastructure doesn’t matter if customers don’t perceive the dangers or how the product suits into their journey.

That’s why we’re embedding explainers, disclaimers, and guardrails instantly into the pockets expertise. And why we’re being very deliberate with how we roll out RWA help — area by area, issuer by issuer. Responsible onboarding is the solely method to construct long-term belief.

Ian de Bode: Clear, well-designed regulatory frameworks are important to unlocking the full potential of this expertise. Recent regulatory momentum like the Genius Act assist present much-needed readability round how tokenized belongings could be issued, traded, and used inside the present monetary system. In quick, considerate regulation like it is a web constructive for the ecosystem. 

Setting clearer guidelines paves the method for larger adoption, institutional participation, and finally broader belief in tokenized belongings, precisely the imaginative and prescient Ondo is working to advance.

Looking two to three years forward, how will you measure success for this partnership? Is it adoption numbers, new asset lessons, or reshaping how individuals take into consideration self-custody wallets?

Eowyn Chen: All three — however we’ll know we’ve succeeded when somebody who by no means had entry to a brokerage account is in a position to achieve significant, on-chain publicity to international markets, on their phrases, of their language, utilizing instruments they belief.

In parallel, we hope to shift the pockets paradigm itself. Instead of being a vault or a speculative gateway, wallets can turn out to be on a regular basis monetary companions — serving to individuals save, develop, and work together with the world’s worth techniques, all from their telephone.

Ian de Bode: In the close to time period, it’s about adoption, ensuring tens of millions of customers can seamlessly entry and profit from tokenized U.S. securities. We launched Ondo Global Markets with over 100 U.S. securities, and we plan to develop to tons of extra by year-end. That scale and breadth of entry will likely be a key marker of progress.

But trying additional forward, success can even imply a shift in mindset. Just as individuals have come to acknowledge that stablecoins generally is a higher model of the greenback, we consider they’ll more and more notice that tokenized belongings — whether or not equities, ETFs, or past — are higher on-chain than offchain. The benefits of blockchain, resembling composability, programmability, and accessibility, will unlock solely new improvements for asset administration, wealth administration, and brokerage. Over the subsequent two to three years, we count on to see this innovation shock lots of people.

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