BlackRock packages investment portfolios as blockchain tokens with Ondo Finance

BlackRock’s partnership with Ondo Finance signals a shift in tokenization beyond individual securities toward entire investment portfolios wrapped on blockchain. The move could reshape how asset managers distribute strategies and give retail investors access to a broader menu of assets including private equity and international markets.

• BlackRock developed three tokenized portfolios for Ondo Finance focused on high income, diversified growth, and high growth strategies.
• Model portfolios held approximately $9.8 trillion in assets as of June, representing a large existing market for tokenized strategies.
• Bitwise introduced Automated Token Portfolios with Coinbase and Glider in August, allowing eligible non-U.S. investors to track tokenized stock allocations.

• $9.8T Assets held in model portfolios globally as of June, per Broadridge data
• 3 Tokenized portfolio strategies BlackRock developed for Ondo Finance distribution

CoinDesk reported that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has partnered with Ondo Finance to offer Intelligent Portfolios, a suite of professionally constructed investment strategies packaged as individual tokens on blockchain networks. The three portfolios combine different assets into strategies targeting high income, diversified growth, and high growth outcomes. Rather than purchasing and rebalancing underlying investments separately, investors can hold a single token representing the entire portfolio allocation.

BlackRock’s approach wraps entire strategies into transferable tokens

The model mirrors how mutual funds and exchange-traded funds have bundled investments for decades, but tokenization adds capabilities unavailable in traditional structures. A portfolio token can move between wallets and platforms, remain visible onchain, and potentially serve as collateral for borrowing or integrate into other financial products. BlackRock positioned the partnership as an evolution in how strategies reach investors. Lisa O’Connor, BlackRock’s global head of model portfolio solutions, said in the announcement that “tokenization creates new ways for portfolio strategies to be delivered through digital infrastructure.”

Tokenization creates new ways for portfolio strategies to be delivered through digital infrastructure.

Lisa O’Connor, BlackRock’s global head of model portfolio solutions

The shift represents movement beyond the first phase of tokenization, which focused on bringing individual assets such as Treasury funds, private credit, and stocks onto blockchain networks. Pantera Capital, a crypto investment firm, described the emerging pattern in a recent report as moving “from single securities to onchain portfolios.” For investors, that transition reduces the number of individual positions and rebalancing decisions they must manage independently.

Competing platforms offer different technical approaches to the same goal

Bitwise introduced Automated Token Portfolios with Coinbase and Glider in August, targeting eligible non-U.S. investors. Ondo wraps the portfolio exposure into a single transferable token. Bitwise leaves the individual tokenized stocks in an investor’s wallet while the software manages the allocation. The approach differs from Ondo’s single-token structure but points toward the same outcome: portfolio management becoming software that operates natively on blockchain-based assets.

Tom Staudt, president and chief operating officer of ARK Invest, framed the broader opportunity in an interview with CoinDesk. Traditional portfolio construction operated within constraints that no longer apply: private equity, private credit, and cryptocurrency were largely inaccessible to retail investors, international markets were difficult to reach, and the fund universe was smaller. Tokenization could democratize access to those asset classes through digital infrastructure, particularly when combined with artificial intelligence. “It’s all great to have AI tell you what a perfect portfolio is, but if you can’t access the assets, it doesn’t really matter,” Staudt said. “Blockchain and tokenization is clearly going to open up funds, strategies, asset classes and jurisdictions that are not currently available for everyone.”

Onchain infrastructure gaps remain before portfolios can adjust in real time

John Hoffman, head of portfolio products at Ondo, described an even more ambitious vision in a June interview. He envisioned autonomous software continuously monitoring markets and allocating capital through professionally managed portfolios that adjust as conditions change. “Our end state will be portfolios that are professionally managed, real-time and adjusting to market circumstances and data changes,” Hoffman said. Reaching that outcome will require more than tokenized securities alone.

The industry first needs a broader universe of assets onchain, prime-brokerage infrastructure, and asset-management strategies executable natively on blockchain networks, Hoffman said.

Dan Romero, chief business officer at Stripe-backed blockchain Tempo, positioned tokenization as the next wave following stablecoins. Stablecoins placed cash onchain; tokenization now extends the investable universe to blockchain networks. That combination enables developers to create financial products that would be difficult or impossible in traditional finance. Romero compared the shift to the rise of specialized neobanks: once underlying infrastructure became accessible, companies could build products tailored to specific customers rather than replicating traditional banking structures. “All of that same infrastructure is now going to be available with tokenized assets and stablecoins that people are going to be able to build really interesting new financial experiences,” he said.

The BlockWest read. We see this not as a branding exercise but as a test of institutional distribution. BlackRock’s move validates that asset managers view tokenization as a lasting infrastructure choice, not a speculative sideshow. The real competition is not whether tokenized strategies work, but whether managers can build software nimble enough to make them genuinely superior to traditional products.

The next phase depends on whether Ondo’s Intelligent Portfolios and Bitwise’s Automated Token Portfolios gain material adoption among eligible investors, signaling whether tokens can actually reduce friction at portfolio level or simply add a layer of complexity to existing workflows.

BlockWest is a news publication. Nothing here is investment advice. Read our disclaimer and editorial policy.