Ondo’s Onchain Portfolios Carry the BlackRock Name. The Fine Print Tells a Different Story.

Ondo Finance began selling single tokens that track diversified portfolios built to its specifications by BlackRock last Wednesday, and the fine print defines a business model asset management has rarely seen: the world’s largest manager licenses the portfolio construction, collects fees on the underlying funds it sponsors, and contractually owes token holders nothing. The launch, Ondo Intelligent Portfolios, covers three tokens for eligible non-US investors: High Income (BLKHIon), Diversified Growth (BLKDIGon) and High Growth (BLKGRWon), now trading peer-to-peer across wallets, exchanges and DeFi venues including 1inch. Ondo Global Markets (BVI) Limited, the British Virgin Islands entity that also issues Ondo’s tokenized stocks, is the issuer. BlackRock appears in the product name and nowhere in the liability chain. What BlackRock Actually Sold The disclaimer language is unusually explicit about the limits of the relationship. BlackRock Fund Advisors provides “one or more nondiscretionary model portfolio strategies” based on specifications Ondo provides. It does not manage or exercise discretion over the onchain portfolios, has no obligation to update the strategies after initial ...