Ondo Names Fidelity Network as Required Validator for Cross-Chain Transfers of Its Tokenized Stocks
Key Facts
Ondo Finance announced on November 10, 2026, that Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) had become a required validator for transfers of Ondo stocks through Ondo Bridge between Ethereum, HyperEVM and other supported networks. The company said FCAT’s decentralized validation network helps check every transaction alongside a quorum of validators. According to the announcement, this process helps confirm a transaction’s integrity before it is settled on the destination chain. The arrangement adds a validation layer to the cross-chain transfer path for tokenized stocks. The announcement concerns the transfer validation mechanism; no new stock offerings were announced.
The validation scope covers transfers of 35 Ondo stocks to HyperEVM and all of Ondo’s more than 450 stocks across other supported networks. Coverage therefore varies by destination network, according to Ondo. The company said eligible investors outside the United States can transfer supported stocks between networks through Ondo Bridge. Once the assets arrive, they can be exchanged, held in self-custody or used as collateral. The company listed the ability to use an asset after transfer among the options available to eligible investors.
Jason Ward, head of blockchain and cryptocurrency at FCAT, said the validation network helps enable secure interoperability between blockchain networks. He added that this strengthens participants’ confidence in using tokenized assets. Ian De Bode, Ondo Finance’s acting chief executive, said FCAT had become a required validator for every transfer. De Bode described the partnership as helping strengthen the security of cross-chain transfers. The statements link the network’s role in transaction validation with the company’s stated goal of securing an asset’s transfer to its destination.
The validator selection mechanism depends on the application itself, according to LayerZero’s explanation: applications choose their own decentralized validation networks and can require any group of them. Security settings remain with the issuer or application. The model allows the selection of a group of participants to check messages before they are settled on the intended network. In the context of the integration, Ondo said Ondo Bridge was the first to adopt FCAT’s network for tokenized assets over LayerZero in February 2026. Expanding the network’s role to Ondo stocks extends that earlier adoption, the company said.
Ondo’s announcement estimated that the total value of tokenized stocks had exceeded $3 billion across a growing number of blockchain networks. That figure came from the company, while the International Monetary Fund estimated the tokenized stock market at about $2.3 billion in an October 2026 report. The fund said Ondo Finance and Backed Finance together accounted for more than 70% of the market’s value, by its estimate. The difference between the figures reflects different scopes of estimation: Ondo described the value as the total for tokenized stocks, while the fund referred to the tokenized stock market. The fund also said these markets are less liquid, more volatile and more fragmented than traditional markets, and urged caution in interpreting early evidence given the market’s novelty and small size.
FCAT operates within Fidelity Investments, which Ondo said had $19.9 trillion in assets under management. In July 2026, LayerZero said FCAT operated a production validation network on 11 chains and that Ondo Finance was the first to integrate the network. This background provides context for the center’s role in the multi-network infrastructure underpinning the new transfers. Ondo had announced in January 2026 the launch of more than 200 tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds on Solana, saying at the time that its products had exceeded $460 million in total value locked and $6.8 billion in cumulative trading volume. These figures remain indicators dated to the January announcement, rather than figures for trading activity on November 10.
In the United States, divisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement issued on January 28, 2026, that securities tokenization models vary in their structure and the rights granted to holders. The agency then announced on September 17, 2026, a temporary, conditional exemption allowing limited trading of tokenized NMS stocks on certain on-chain platforms. This adds broader regulatory context to the expansion of tokenized asset infrastructure, but does not change the scope of Ondo’s announcement concerning cross-chain transfers of its stocks. Access to the transfers remains limited to eligible investors outside the United States, according to the company. The announcement did not specify a subsequent date or a new implementation phase after November 10.