21Shares seeks approval for ONDO ETF

21Shares has revised details of its US exchange-traded fund filing tracking ONDO, the native token of the real-world asset tokenization platform. The crypto ETP company filed the amended S-1 document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

In a reaction post on social platform X, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas mentioned the development late Friday, joking that the product’s name sounded “like a planet in Star Wars.”

21Shares filing for an Ondo ETF. Never heard of this one, sounds like the name of a planet in Star Wars. pic.twitter.com/qtXql94nfO

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 6, 2026

The S-1/A submission is a follow-up on 21Shares’ first filing for a “21Shares Ondo Trust,” which the SEC posted on its website on July 22, 2025. The issuer has now rebranded the so-called trust as the “21Shares Ondo ETF” and specified Nasdaq as the intended listing destination, pending regulatory approval.

21Shares is the first asset management firm to seek to wrap ONDO exposure into a traditional brokerage product.

21Shares revises ONDO ETF proposal

According to the original S-1 document, 21Shares had indicated in their note that the trust would be a passive fund. It would hold ONDO and use a third-party benchmark to track the dollar price of ONDO.

The first submission outlined shares would be created and redeemed through large blocks called “Baskets,” handled by broker-dealers. But the revised proposal designates basket size to blocks of 10,000 shares per basket. The basket size affects how market makers arbitrage premiums and discounts in the secondary market.

The amendment also says brokers can create shares by depositing cash with the fund’s cash custodian. The sponsor then automatically instructs a third party to buy the ONDO needed for that order and deliver the tokens into the fund’s custody accounts.

When an authorized participant redeems for cash, the sponsor directs a custodian to transfer ONDO to a designated counterparty, which sells the tokens and deposits cash proceeds back into the fund’s cash account for settlement. The prospectus states that any slippage or trading costs associated with cash creations or redemptions are borne by the Authorized Participant, not the trust or the sponsor.

While last July’s filing said the trust would custody ONDO at a single regulated third-party custodian, Coinbase, the amendment changes that to a dual-custodian model by adding BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A.

BitGo is a federally chartered national trust bank and received a national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in December last year.

The S-1/A prospectus also introduces “Vault Balance” and distinguishes “Cold Vault Balance” from “Hot Vault Balance.” It says the sponsor expects assets and keys to be held in cold storage on an ongoing basis, with hot wallets used at times for settlement.

There are three review paths after the amendment, owing to the SEC’s new formal process for approving exchange-traded funds. The best-case scenario will see ONDO ETF’s registration go live 20 to 75 days after the amendment, putting the earliest window between late February and mid-April 2026.

Ondo Finance RWA footprint and WLF ties

ONDO has appeared in political headlines through World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project affiliated with President Donald Trump’s family. Last year, WLF bought $500,000 worth of the token for a multi-asset treasury.

In other related news, Consensys’ MetaMask has tapped Ondo Finance to offer tokenized securities. Per a press statement released by the wallet service provider on Tuesday, eligible MetaMask users in non-US countries now have access to 200 tokenized US stocks, ETFs, and commodities, including gold and silver, on Ethereum.

Users acquire the tokenized exposure through MetaMask Swaps by swapping Circle’s USDC stablecoin into Ondo Global Markets tokens. However, the product is not available for users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and several jurisdictions in the European Economic Area.

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