Tokenization protocol Ondo Finance was presented to prospective buyers following the unexpected passing of its founder and chief executive officer, Nathan Allman, earlier in the year, according to three individuals possessing knowledge of the situation.
The outreach took place at some point after Allman passed away on May 25, based on accounts from two of the individuals who requested anonymity because the circumstances remain private.
Nevertheless, the precise identity of the party driving the initiatives to sell Ondo Finance stays ambiguous.
During early August, Allman’s estate initiated a lawsuit against the interim CEO of Ondo, Ian De Bode, contending that an unauthorized acquisition of financial power and authority took place, which subsequently triggered a fierce corporate governance dispute.
Nathan Allman passed away suddenly at age 32 without leaving a will, introducing uncertainty regarding the future of his majority stake in Ondo Finance alongside his substantial inventory of ONDO tokens. Following an estate administration procedure, his parents, 77-year-old Kathleen Allman and 82-year-old Lawrence Allman, were granted his estate.
Based on an active judicial directive, De Bode continues to serve as Ondo’s CEO and maintains oversight of daily operations, though he is barred from implementing major corporate alterations while the governance conflict undergoes resolution. A separate legal petition introduced by Allman’s half-sister—who is also an investor in Ondo—attempted to restrict Kathleen’s administrative oversight regarding her portion of the estate. Kathleen Allman refuted the claims put forward in the petition.
The intensifying corporate battle for authority over the entity has likely suspended any prospective acquisition strategies, one of the sources indicated.
An official representative for Ondo rejected claims that the enterprise actively pursued buyers at any point, labeling assertions of an impending sale as completely false.
“Nobody at the company has shopped it for sale, been in sales talks, or engaged or asked anyone to do so on its behalf. There are no facts to support this,” the spokesperson added.
Representatives for the estate declined to provide a statement.
Established in 2021 by prior Goldman Sachs professionals, the New York-headquartered Ondo provides tokenized American equities and Treasury instruments, holding exceeding $3.8 billion across its suite of products, which secures its position as a primary platform for real-world assets utilizing blockchain technology. The OUSG fund managed by Ondo maintains allocations within the tokenized BUIDL fund managed by BlackRock.
Ondo refrained from revealing any valuation metrics throughout its public funding rounds, and CoinDesk failed to verify specific figures debated during potential buyout discussions.
The business secured $24 million in equity financing: $4 million during 2021 followed by $20 million in a Series A round during 2022. An independent $10 million token offering elevates the publicly documented capital collection to $34 million. Equity investors backing Ondo feature Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, Coinbase Ventures, and Tiger Global.
Ondo was marketed amidst a broader wave of industry M&A activity, featuring transactions focused on scaling tokenized financial systems. Officially announced crypto mergers and acquisitions achieved $12.9 billion throughout the second quarter, representing the second-highest quarterly aggregate for the sector, according to figures from Architect Partners.
The most substantial transaction of that quarter involved Bullish acquiring transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2 billion, representing a strategic wager on integrating legacy financial instruments onto distributed ledger infrastructure.
Bullish functions as the parent entity overseeing CoinDesk.
Read more: Power struggle erupts at Ondo Finance after founder’s death
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/23/someone-was-trying-to-sell-ondo-finance-after-founder-nathan-allman-s-death.
