Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman passes away at age 32! Appointed as CEO, he states: "His mission will not change."

RWA tokenization pioneer and Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman suddenly passed away at the age of 32. Company President Ian De Bode immediately took over as CEO. Having honed his skills in Goldman Sachs’ digital assets team, this entrepreneur led Ondo to put more than $3.86 billion in tokenized real-world assets on-chain, successfully drawing major Wall Street players such as BlackRock into the space, laying an important milestone for the RWA sector.
(Background: The U.S. SEC terminates its investigation into Ondo Finance “with no charges”! $ONDO jumps higher and breaks above $0.5)
(Additional context: Ondo launches the tokenized market Global Markets: with over 100 U.S. stocks and ETFs onboarded on-chain at launch; first on Ethereum)

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• From Goldman Sachs to founding Ondo: the trail of an RWA pioneer
• Industry mourning: the vision of a generation of founders
• Ondo’s next steps: organizational transition and mission continuation

The sudden passing of a founder is often the toughest test a startup can face. Ondo Finance founder and CEO Nathan Allman unexpectedly died at the age of 32. This pioneering company in the RWA (real-world asset tokenization) space posted an announcement on the X platform, confirming this heartbreaking news.

“We announce with deep sorrow the unexpected passing of Ondo founder Nathan Allman,” Ondo Finance said in the announcement, “our hearts are with his family and close friends.”

“Nate’s wisdom, humility, and drive have shaped every part of Ondo today,” Ondo added, “his belief that technology can create a more open and more inclusive financial system will continue to live on in everything we build. No matter how strongly we emphasize it, his impact on this industry and on all of us cannot be overstated.”

Ondo did not disclose Allman’s specific cause of death. A company spokesperson only said that Allman’s family asks the public to respect his privacy.

From Goldman Sachs to founding Ondo: the trail of an RWA pioneer

Before founding Ondo, Allman had worked in the digital assets team of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, gaining first-hand experience at the intersection of traditional finance and cryptocurrencies. Earlier still, he founded the crypto hedge fund ChainStreet Capital, focusing on algorithmic and event-driven trading strategies.

In 2021, Allman founded Ondo Finance, successfully riding the wave of tokenizing real-world assets such as U.S. Treasuries, stocks, and commodities. Today, Ondo has brought more than $3.86 billion worth of RWA onto the blockchain, serving more than 111,000 token holders. This tokenization movement driven by Allman has succeeded in attracting attention from Wall Street giants such as BlackRock, which believes the technology will significantly improve trading and settlement efficiency.

Industry mourning: the vision of a generation of founders

In a post on X, Ondo Vice President and Head of Marketing Ben Grossman wrote to mourn: “Nate was a once-in-a-century founder and dreamer. He had extraordinary talent, vision, and drive—shaping the entire industry and everyone around him. We will miss him tremendously.”

Ian De Bode, Ondo’s President who succeeded as CEO, told CoinTelegraph: “For Ondo Finance, this is an extremely sad day. Nate was not only an outstanding founder and dreamer, but also a very close friend. We will deeply miss him.” He emphasized: “Ondo’s mission—also Nate’s mission—will not change. If Nate were still here, he would want us to continue executing our work to the highest standards. We will make him proud.”

Ondo’s next steps: organizational transition and mission continuation

After news of Allman’s passing came out, Ondo emphasized in its announcement that the company has put in place a well-developed operating framework. President Ian De Bode immediately assumed the CEO role to ensure the company’s operations would not be interrupted. De Bode noted that the company will continue to advance its core roadmap for tokenizing RWA, including partnerships with traditional financial institutions such as JPMorgan and Mastercard—strategic relationships that Allman had personally built during his lifetime.