Ondo Finance Lands Abu Dhabi Approval to Trade Tokenized Stocks on Binance

Ondo Finance's tokenized stocks, including Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, have received regulatory approval from Abu Dhabi's financial regulator to trade on Binance's regulated platform, marking the first time the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has cleared tokenized securities trading under its formal regulatory framework.

What Did Abu Dhabi Actually Approve?

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the ADGM approved Ondo Global Markets' tokenized stocks and ETFs to trade on Binance's FSRA-regulated Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF). An MTF is a regulated venue where buyers and sellers can trade financial instruments, similar in function to a stock exchange but typically operated by a bank or investment firm rather than a national exchange.

The approved listing includes tokenized versions of nine major companies and one ETF: Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Circle, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and the Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100 index. All products are available to non-U.S. users only.

This is the first time the ADGM has approved tokenized securities trading under its own framework, allowing UAE-based financial institutions, intermediaries, and counterparties to deal in token versions of publicly traded equities.

"Through offering Ondo tokenized stocks for trading on Binance, we are expanding access to hundreds of millions of investors," said Ian de Bode, president of Ondo Finance.

What Are Ondo's Tokenized Securities?

Tokenized securities are blockchain-based digital assets designed to track the price of traditional stocks or ETFs on-chain. They give holders exposure to price movements of the underlying asset, but they do not carry full shareholder rights. That means no voting rights and no direct ownership of the underlying shares.

Ondo Finance structures its products as equity-linked notes tied to the underlying shares. This classification matters because under FSRA regulations, these products are treated as structured financial products, not direct equity holdings.

How Ondo Compares To Traditional Stock Ownership

The key difference between buying a tokenized stock and buying a regular stock comes down to what you actually hold:

• A traditional stock gives you legal ownership of a share in a company, including voting rights and dividends
• A tokenized equity-linked note gives you price exposure only, with performance tied to the underlying share
• Tokenized securities can be traded, transferred, or used across blockchain-based lending and trading platforms

Ondo says it has processed more than $11 billion in cumulative trading volume, with over $600 million in total value locked since launching its tokenized equities offering less than six months ago.

Why Did Binance Shut Down Tokenized Stocks in 2021?

Binance first launched tokenized stocks in April 2021, starting with Tesla before adding Coinbase, Microsoft, and Apple. The service was pulled later that year after regulators in the United Kingdom and Germany raised concerns about whether the products complied with local securities laws. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority and Germany's BaFin both flagged the service, and Binance shut it down.

The return to tokenized equities now comes after a notable shift in the regulatory environment. Last month, Binance publicly stated it was considering a fresh push into the space. The Ondo partnership, backed by ADGM approval, puts that plan into action with a regulated structure that the 2021 version lacked.

The Prior Binance Alpha Listing

A few weeks before the ADGM approval, Binance had already added 10 of Ondo Finance's tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs to its Binance Alpha platform. That listing included some of the most traded names in traditional finance:

• AAPLon (Apple)
• GOOGLon (Alphabet/Google)
• TSLAon (Tesla)
• NVDAon (Nvidia)
• QQQon (Invesco Nasdaq-tracking ETF)

Binance Alpha sits inside Binance Wallet, the exchange's non-custodial crypto wallet. It was originally built to give users early access to smaller, higher-risk crypto projects ahead of listings on Binance's main spot market. Adding tokenized securities expands its scope considerably.

How Does Trading Work on Binance's Platform?

Users can trade Ondo tokenized securities using funds from their Binance Exchange account directly through Binance Wallet. Trading features currently include market orders for instant execution, limit orders for price-specific entries, trading fees that may be as low as 0%, and zero gas fees on order placement and cancellation for a limited time.

Users also earn Alpha Points on every trade or by holding Ondo tokenized securities. These points can be used to access airdrops, token generation events (TGEs), and Prime Sales on the platform.

"Our users now have even more convenient ways to explore and trade tokenized securities, in line with our mission to offer innovative and accessible trading opportunities," said Jeff Li, Binance's vice president of product.

The broader tokenized stocks market has surpassed $1 billion in total value, according to RWA.xyz data. Crypto exchanges including Kraken, brokerages like Robinhood, and traditional market operators such as Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have all shown interest in the space.

Conclusion

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization refers to the process of representing traditional financial assets, such as stocks, bonds, or real estate, as tokens on a blockchain. The appeal is: tokenized assets can move across trading and lending platforms more easily than their traditional counterparts, and they can connect stock market exposure with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

The ADGM approval is significant because it gives the model a regulated foundation in a major financial hub, something the 2021 Binance attempt lacked entirely.

Resources

1. Ondo Finance on X: Post on March 3

2. Report by CoinDesk: Ondo Finance tokenized stocks platform on Binance wins regulatory approval in Abu Dhabi

3. Report by DL News: Tokenized Equities Approach $1B Mark as Institutional Rails Emerge

4. Report by The Block: Binance says it will no longer offer trading of stock tokens

5. Announcement by Binance: Ceasing Support for Stock Tokens on Binance.com and Migration to CM-Equity AG for EEA Users