Ondo Subsidiary Joins DTCC's Fund/SERV Network, Standardizing Connections to Existing Fund Distributors

On September 16 local time, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Ondo Finance announced that Ondo subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets had become a member of Fund/SERV. Ondo is a technology company that turns financial assets into tokens on a blockchain. Oasis Pro Markets, the entity that joined the network, is a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and an alternative trading system (ATS) operator; it acts as a distributor of tokenized investment products. Fund/SERV is established financial-market infrastructure that electronically processes and settles transactions between fund companies and distributors. The companies described this as the first participation by a tokenization platform in Fund/SERV.

Instead of building a separate connection for every fund, Oasis Pro Markets can use one standardized connection to conduct transaction-related business with fund companies, wealth-management platforms, and service providers. The connection supports the exchange of account-level information, trade confirmations, reconciliation between parties' books, distribution payments, and information needed for tax and regulatory reporting. According to DTCC, Fund/SERV processes more than 85% of U.S. mutual-fund transaction activity. Ondo said participation in the network lays the groundwork for connecting tokenized funds to existing fund-distribution channels.

The joint announcement did not identify a particular Ondo product that had begun trading through Fund/SERV or give a date for a first trade. What has taken place is a broker-dealer's admission to a processing network, which is distinct from the launch of sales of any individual tokenized fund or regulatory approval of a product.

Metanomia View

For tokenized funds to reach existing distribution channels, firms must be able to exchange orders, account data, and settlement information as well as put assets into token form. A single standardized connection reduces the need to build separate links for each fund and helps connect tokenized products with the systems existing distributors already use. This membership shows that tokenized finance can reach users not only by replacing established financial networks, but also by using their distribution and settlement infrastructure.

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