Ondo Finance Review
Thirteen named auditors and daily attestations on tokenized assets
of 10
Ondo Finance scores 6.8 in DeFi protocols. It links audit reports from 13 firms, states backing per product and publishes daily third-party attestations for Ondo Stocks. Contract control and timelocks are not disclosed, and the newly published code is BUSL-1.1. Desk research checked November 1, 2026.
Overall score
6.8 = (8 + 5 + 10 + 8 + 3) / 5
OUSG fee
0.15% management fee, waived to Jan 1, 2027; expenses capped at 0.15%
Audits
13 firms linked, incl. Cantina, Zellic, Spearbit, Cyfrin, Halborn
Licence
BUSL-1.1 (ondoprotocol/rwa-contracts, public since Jul 2026)
Attestations
Ondo Stocks: daily, by Ankura Trust Company
Contract control
Not stated in the docs
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (8.0 + 5.0 + 10.0 + 8.0 + 3.0) ÷ 5 = 6.8.
Pros
- Audits 10: reports linked from 13 named firms, nine for current products
- Backing 8: Ondo Stocks held at US broker-dealers, with daily Ankura attestations
- Fees 8: OUSG 0.15% management fee, waived to Jan 1, 2027; expenses capped at 0.15%
- Licence 5: OUSG, USDY and Global Markets source published with build manifests
Cons
- Governance 3: no statement of who can pause, mint or upgrade the token contracts
- Code is BUSL-1.1 with no additional use grant and no stated change date
- No USDY fee or USDY attestation is described in the docs
- Ondo Stocks spread and extra-collateral size are not quantified
How Ondo Finance scores in DeFi protocols
This entry rates Ondo Finance, which issues tokens giving exposure to US Treasuries and US-listed stocks and ETFs, in our DeFi protocols ranking. Each product has its own issuer and eligibility rules. USDY and Ondo Stocks are issued by Ondo Global Markets (BVI) Limited to eligible non-US investors, and OUSG is a private fund for US accredited investors who are also qualified purchasers. The basis is desk research of Ondo's documentation, its audits page and its public GitHub repositories, checked on November 1, 2026. No account was opened and no token was minted. The category has five criteria, each marked 0 to 10 and weighted equally, as set out in our ratings methodology.
| Criterion | What the sources show | Mark |
|---|---|---|
| What it does & fees | Each product's purpose and issuer are stated. OUSG charges a 0.15% management fee, waived until January 1, 2027, with fund expenses capped at 0.15% a year. Ondo Stocks have no mint or burn fee, but Ondo keeps the spread. No USDY fee is stated. | 8 |
| Licence & code openness | A public rwa-contracts repository, opened in July 2026, holds the OUSG, USDY and Global Markets contracts under the Business Source License 1.1, with no change date stated. | 5 |
| Audit disclosure | The audits page links reports from 13 firms: nine for current products and four for deprecated ones. | 10 |
| Backing & transparency | Backing is stated per product. Ondo Stocks are held at US broker-dealers, with Ankura Trust Company as security agent publishing daily attestations. OUSG's administrator has daily read-only access to the fund's accounts. No USDY attestation is described. | 8 |
| Governance & control | The docs do not say who holds admin, pause, mint or upgrade rights over the token contracts, or whether a timelock applies. | 3 |
The overall score is the plain average: (8 + 5 + 10 + 8 + 3) / 5 = 34 / 5 = 6.8, up from 6.0 at the July 24, 2026 check. Two marks changed. Licence & code openness rose from 2 to 5 after Ondo published its RWA contract source under BUSL-1.1, the same mark the category gives Maple Finance's BUSL code. Backing & transparency rose from 7 to 8 because the Ondo Stocks documentation now describes daily third-party attestations. Fees, audits and governance are unchanged.
Strongest criteria
Audit disclosure (10)
Ondo's audits page links reports from Cantina, Zellic, FYEO, Cyfrin, Spearbit, Halborn, Code4rena, Zokyo and Nethermind for current products, and from ABDK, Quantstamp, PeckShield and CertiK for deprecated ones. No other entry in this category names as many firms. The Ondo Stocks trust page names Spearbit and Cyfrin for those contracts. An Immunefi bug bounty is linked from the repository. Audits review code at a point in time; they are not insurance.
Backing stated per product (8)
For Ondo Stocks, the issuer is described as bankruptcy-remote, holdings sit with one or more US-registered custodial broker-dealers, and Ankura Trust Company holds a first-priority security interest in the collateral. Ankura also performs daily attestations, which Ondo says have been viewable on each asset's detail page since October 1, 2025. OUSG's trust page says most of the fund is invested in BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), its administrator has daily read-only access to the accounts, and the fund is audited annually. The mark stops at 8 for two reasons. The extra collateral required for Ondo Stocks has no stated size, and the USDY pages describe what backs the note but no attestation.
Fees (8)
OUSG's fee and expense cap are stated to the basis point, and the instant-redemption limits are published: $25 million per investor and $50 million across all investors in any 24 hours. Ondo Stocks have no mint or burn fee. Ondo keeps any difference between its quoted price and its own execution price, and that spread is not quantified. The USDY pages give a $5,000 minimum on some chains but no fee.
Weakest criteria
Governance: not stated (3)
This is a gap in disclosure. Neither the trust-and-security page nor the product trust pages say who controls the contracts. The published source includes compliance, pause and token-manager components, so the issuer can restrict and pause tokens, but we found no statement of the keys, multisig thresholds or timelocks behind them. The ONDO token's governance covers Flux Finance, a separate lending protocol. It gives no claim on, or control over, the assets behind USDY, OUSG or Ondo Stocks. The category gives 3 when control is not stated, as it does for Index Coop and Synthetix.
Licence: published, but not open source (5)
The rwa-contracts README says the source is published set by set as products are announced. It includes per-file SHA-256 manifests so the code can be checked against the verified contracts on-chain. The licence is BUSL-1.1 with no additional use grant, and the change date and change license are given as "Not specified". A separate Solana program repository is also BUSL-1.1, converting to Apache 2.0 four years after publication. Readable code with commercial reuse restricted earns the same 5 the category gives other BUSL code.
What the score does not cover
The score covers published disclosure. It does not measure yield, tracking accuracy against the underlying stocks, liquidity on secondary markets or the credit of the custodians and counterparties. Access is a separate matter. US persons cannot buy USDY or Ondo Stocks from the issuer, several countries are excluded, and OUSG is open only to qualified purchasers. Buying a token on an exchange does not give the right to redeem it with the issuer. Our guide on assessing reserves and redemption explains why that matters for a dollar-linked token.
Ondo Finance vs Maple Finance and Index Coop
Maple Finance, whose cash pool also lends into US Treasuries, scores 7.0 (8, 5, 10, 7, 5). It ties with Ondo on fees, licence and audits and leads on governance (5 against 3), because it documents a timelock. Ondo leads on backing (8 against 7). Index Coop also scores 6.8 (8, 8, 8, 7, 3) and is listed first only because ties are ordered alphabetically. It ties with Ondo on fees and governance (3) and leads on licence (Apache 2.0, 8 against 5). Ondo leads on audits by two points and on backing by one.
Who it suits
On these marks, Ondo suits eligible non-US investors and US qualified purchasers who want tokenized Treasury or stock exposure with a long audit record and published attestations. It suits less well anyone who needs to know who can pause or upgrade the token contracts, or who wants code they can freely reuse.
How it compares
Nexus Mutual
GPL code, an on-chain capital pool and a per-release audit log
Reserve
Open-source basket tokens with capped fees and 19 audits
dHEDGE
Open AGPL code and a full, linked audit archive
Maple Finance
Dated, linked audits for every release since V2
Index Coop
Per-product fees, Apache code and six named auditors
Derive (formerly Lyra)
Options and perp fees published in full, with a named V3 audit
Term Finance
Fixed-rate loans with published fees and a worked example
Synthetix
A published, volume-tiered perps fee schedule
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Ondo docs — welcome and product overview — checked
- 2.Ondo docs — trust and security — checked
- 3.Ondo docs — USDY basics — checked
- 4.Ondo docs — OUSG fees and taxes — checked
- 5.Ondo docs — OUSG instant limits — checked
- 6.Ondo docs — OUSG trust and transparency — checked
- 7.Ondo docs — Ondo Stocks trust and transparency — checked
- 8.Ondo docs — Ondo Stocks fees and taxes — checked
- 9.Ondo docs — Ondo Stocks eligibility — checked
- 10.Ondo docs — smart contract audits — checked
- 11.Ondo docs — Flux Finance — checked
- 12.GitHub — ondoprotocol/rwa-contracts (BUSL-1.1) — checked
- 13.GitHub — ondoprotocol/global-markets-solana (BUSL-1.1) — checked
Frequently asked questions
Why does Ondo Finance score 6.8?
It is the plain average of five equal marks: fees 8, licence 5, audits 10, backing 8 and governance 3. The audit list and stated backing lift it. The lack of any statement on who controls the token contracts is the main drag.
What changed since the July 2026 score?
The overall score rose from 6.0 to 6.8. Licence went from 2 to 5 because Ondo published its RWA contract source under BUSL-1.1. Backing went from 7 to 8 because Ondo Stocks now carry daily third-party attestations.
What would raise Ondo's score?
Stating who holds admin, pause and upgrade rights, with any multisig threshold and timelock, would most likely raise the governance mark. Publishing USDY attestations and the size of the Ondo Stocks extra collateral would help the backing mark.
Was Ondo Finance tested hands-on?
No. The score is based on desk research of Ondo's documentation, audits page and GitHub, checked November 1, 2026. Yield, redemption speed and secondary-market liquidity were not measured.
How does Ondo compare with Maple Finance?
Ondo scores 6.8 and Maple Finance 7.0. Both have BUSL-1.1 code (5), a fees mark of 8 and an audits mark of 10. Maple leads on governance, 5 to 3, because it documents a timelock. Ondo leads on backing, 8 to 7.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.