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Ahmed Barakat
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Nathan Allman, the founder and CEO of Ondo Finance and one of the most consequential figures in tokenized real-world assets, has died unexpectedly at 35. No cause of death was disclosed. The crypto community learned of his passing through an announcement posted by Ondo Finance on X.
The company’s statement read: “Nate’s brilliance, humility, and drive shaped every part of what Ondo is today. His belief in the power of technology to create a more open, accessible financial system lives on in everything we build.”
Ian De Bode, Ondo’s longtime president who has led strategy, product, and day-to-day operations for more than two years, will assume the role of CEO.
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Nathan Allman and His Journey From Goldman Sachs to ONDO CEO
Allman graduated from Brown University before joining Goldman Sachs, where he worked on the bank’s digital assets team within its Global Markets division, helping structure institutional crypto services within one of Wall Street’s most guarded institutions.
The vantage point gave him something most DeFi founders lacked: a working understanding of why traditional finance was slow to move on-chain, and exactly what it would take to change that.
He founded Ondo Finance in 2021. The thesis was to bring institutional-grade financial products like U.S. Treasuries onto public blockchains, compliantly and at scale.
Under his leadership as CEO, Ondo grew to $3.5 billion in total value locked, with products including USDY, a yield-bearing stablecoin, OUSG, a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, and tokenized equities through Ondo Global Markets. Ondo became the emblematic case study for what serious infrastructure in the RWA sector could look like.
As we know, the tokenization of real-world assets has become one of the most-watched institutional narratives in crypto. Allman didn’t just ride that wave; he helped create it. His background in both quant-driven hedge fund strategy and regulated financial markets infrastructure gave Ondo credibility.
The Person Behind the Protocol
Colleagues described Allman as someone whose technical intelligence was matched by genuine calm. He was a rare combination in an industry that rewards volume and velocity above almost everything else. He was known for his willingness to mentor early-stage founders, and for showing up in governance discussions and regulatory forums with the kind of seriousness that signaled he understood what was at stake beyond the token price.
Industry leaders, including Stani Kulechov of Aave and Robert Leshner, have paid tribute to his contribution to the sector’s maturation. The outpouring reflects something real: Allman occupied the specific intersection of Wall Street rigor and Web3 idealism that most people only talk about. He actually built there.
It’s worth noting that Allman structured Ondo’s governance deliberately for longevity, a protocol designed to outlast any single individual, including himself. That choice reads differently now. It was the architecture of someone thinking past the present moment.
Nathan Allman was 35. Our thoughts are with his family, his colleagues, and everyone who knew him.
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