Ondo Global Markets Launches on Binance With Tokenized QQQ, Apple, Tesla and More

• Ondo Global Markets’ tokenized securities have landed on Binance Alpha, the exchange’s discovery zone for tokens not yet listed on the main platform.
• The exchange has added 10 new tokenized securities initially, including Tesla, Google, Apple, and the Nasdaq-100 ETF.

In April 2021, Binance announced that it would offer tokenized securities of popular American stocks, starting with Tesla, before expanding to Apple, Microsoft, and more. This service was short-lived, with regulators in the UK and across Europe forcing the company to shut it down. The exchange has reintroduced these tokenized securities, but this time, Ondo Global Markets will be doing all the hard work.

The world’s largest crypto exchange has added tokenized securities from Ondo on its Binance Alpha platform, which lists new tokens before they are listed on the main trading platform. Announcing the new product, the exchange said it would allow users to use their CEX funds to purchase stocks, with the trading fees as low as 0% on some stocks.

At launch, it will offer 10 securities, but it intends to expand the offering in due time. Ian De Bode, the Ondo Finance president, revealed that some of these will be Apple (APPLon), Alphabet (GOOGLon), Tesla (TSLAon), Nvidia (NVDAon), and the Nasdaq-100 stock market index (QQQon).

Ondo Brings Tokenized Securities Back to Binance

Binance users will have direct access to these tokens and can make payments using their CEX funds. The exchange will also waive all gas fees for placing and canceling orders, with some trades being processed for zero fees.

The platform will offer some of its main exchange features, including market orders for instant execution and limit orders for greater control. Traders also get to earn Binance Alpha Points for every trade, or even for simply holding the tokenized securities on the exchange. These points give holders exclusive access to airdrops, token-generation events, and other perks.

Jeff Li, the exchange’s vice president of product, says that the new product expands the investment options for traders, adding:

The launch comes a month after Binance revealed it was weighing bringing back tokenized securities. Speaking in late January, a spokesperson said that it’s the next step after the introduction of the first regulated TradFi perpetual contracts settled in stablecoins. The aim is to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance, he added.

Days earlier, another major global exchange, OKX, had announced a similar move, working with Ondo Finance. Coinbase is also exploring tokenized stocks on its platform.

Unlike its peers, Binance had ventured into this sector, but regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and Germany’s BaFin clamped down on the exchange, forcing it to shut the product down. They claimed that these were unregistered securities offerings.

Since then, crypto has enlisted powerful allies, led by American President Donald Trump, and while the laws have barely changed, the same products restricted back in 2021 are now considered cutting-edge.

Ondo continues to dominate this market. Earlier this month, it debuted Ondo Perps, which offers 24/7 equity perpetuals on US stocks and ETFs. It’s now weighing how it can turn its tokenized assets into a full prime brokerage stack, as CNF reported.