BlackRock and Ondo expand tokenization into onchain portfolios

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BlackRock, Ondo expand tokenization

Highlights

BlackRock and Ondo Finance launched tokenized Intelligent Portfolios, offering single-token blockchain exposure to high income, diversified growth, and high growth strategies.
Broadridge estimates model portfolios held about $9.8 trillion in assets as of June, signaling significant market potential for onchain portfolio tokenization.
Ondo's single-token structure contrasts with Bitwise's individually held tokens, underscoring evolving blockchain-native portfolio management models for broader asset access and industry collaboration.

BlackRock's portfolio tokenization push

As reported by CoinDesk, BlackRock and Ondo Finance are using Intelligent Portfolios to package professionally built investment strategies into blockchain-based tokens that give investors exposure through a single holding.

The three portfolios developed by BlackRock for Ondo combine assets into strategies focused on high income, diversified growth and high growth. Instead of buying and rebalancing each underlying investment separately, investors hold one token representing the broader portfolio.

That approach builds on a familiar concept from mutual funds and ETFs, but puts the portfolio itself onchain. This means the exposure can move between wallets and platforms, remain visible on blockchain networks and potentially be used as collateral or integrated into other financial products.

The shift marks a new phase for tokenization, which has so far largely centered on individual assets such as Treasury funds, private credit, stocks and ETFs. Pantera described that transition in a recent report as a move from single securities to onchain portfolios, while Broadridge says model portfolios held about $9.8 trillion in assets in June.

BlackRock frames the Ondo partnership as a new distribution channel for portfolio strategies. Lisa O'Connor, BlackRock's global head of model portfolio solutions, says in the announcement that tokenization creates new ways for such strategies to be delivered through digital infrastructure.

Implications for crypto and asset management

Other firms are already testing similar structures. Bitwise introduced Automated Token Portfolios with Coinbase and a16z-backed Glider in August, allowing eligible non-U.S. investors to follow Bitwise-designed portfolios of tokenized stocks while keeping the individual assets in their own wallets, with software adjusting allocations to target weights.

Ondo's model differs by wrapping portfolio exposure into a single transferable token, while Bitwise leaves the underlying tokenized stocks in the investor wallet. Despite the structural difference, both models point to portfolio management becoming software that operates directly on blockchain-based assets.

Industry executives say the longer-term impact could reach beyond product packaging. Tom Staudt, president and chief operating officer of ARK Invest, says tokenization could widen the range of assets that can sit inside a portfolio, including private equity, private credit, crypto and international exposures that were historically harder for everyday investors to access.

Combined with AI, tokenization could also support portfolios tailored more closely to an investor's goals, risk tolerance and tax situation. For asset managers, that could make it easier to combine products from different firms in a single portfolio and could reshape both competition and collaboration across the sector.

Reaching that stage still requires broader onchain asset availability, prime-brokerage infrastructure and strategies that can be executed natively on blockchain networks. Dan Romero, chief business officer at Stripe-backed blockchain Tempo, says tokenization follows the path stablecoins opened by bringing more of the investable universe onchain, creating the base for new financial products rather than simple digital replicas of traditional ones.

Our earlier coverage of Weiss Ratings’ Ultimate Portfolio detailed how the firm packaged its stock ratings, bull/bear timing tools, economic forecasting and AI models into a single, managed strategy aimed at diversification and long-term returns. We noted that Weiss positioned it as an all-in-one, tech-led portfolio for U.S. investors, including potential use as a core allocation in retirement accounts. The launch highlighted how portfolio construction is increasingly being productized through software and quantitative models—an approach that complements today’s push to distribute portfolio strategies via tokenization.

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