Ondo Finance added its tokenized gold and silver tokens, GLDon and SLVon, as collateral margin for perpetual futures on Ondo Perps. The move lets eligible non-US traders back leveraged positions in equities, indices, and commodities with real-world assets instead of idle capital.
Ondo Finance added tokenized gold and silver, GLDon and SLVon, as collateral for perpetual futures on Ondo Perps for non-US traders.
The integration, announced Aug. 5 on Ondo Perps' X account, lets eligible traders outside the United States back long or short positions in equities, indices, and commodities with real-world assets instead of keeping idle capital, the firm said.
The update removes the need to hold duplicate reserves in stablecoins and traditional brokerages, allowing the same tokenized spot asset to serve as both a hedge and collateral within the onchain ecosystem. Ondo said this optimizes capital efficiency and simplifies complex strategies such as the basis trade, where traders capture the spread between spot and futures prices.
The launch follows Ondo's earlier addition of SPYon and QQQon, tokenized versions of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, as the firm consolidates infrastructure for an institutional onchain prime brokerage that operates 24/7.
Ondo Finance tokenizes short-term US Treasuries and other real-world assets, offering yield on-chain. The new collateral feature extends that model into derivatives, letting traders post tokenized precious metals as margin rather than stablecoins. A trader holding GLDon as a hedge against a short gold position can now post that same token as margin, rather than selling it to raise stablecoins.
The move deepens competition in tokenized commodities, where Tether's XAUT gold token won formal recognition in Abu Dhabi's ADGM financial center this year. Ondo's GLDon and SLVon now carry a derivatives use case that XAUT lacks, giving the firm a distinct hook for institutional traders seeking capital efficiency across spot and perp markets.
For Ondo, the feature strengthens its position in the real-world asset tokenization sector, potentially driving demand for its gold and silver products as traders use them to back positions. The 24/7 prime brokerage model also positions the firm to capture flows that traditional brokerages cannot serve outside market hours, a structural advantage as tokenized commodities gain traction among institutions.
The next test is whether traders actually post GLDon and SLVon as margin in volume, a metric that would show up in Ondo Perps' open interest and the tokens' on-chain supply. If adoption follows, the collateral feature could pull more capital into tokenized precious metals and pressure rivals to add similar derivatives utility.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
