Nathan Allman, the founder and chief executive of Ondo Finance, has died at the age of 32. The company confirmed his death on Monday and said the circumstances would not be discussed publicly at the request of his family, who have asked for privacy.
Allman was widely regarded as a leading figure in the push to bring traditional financial assets onto blockchain networks. Since Ondo’s founding in 2021, the firm has played a central role in the tokenization of real-world assets, helping to place about $3.86 billion of Treasuries, stocks and commodities on-chain. More than 111,680 token holders currently own tokenized assets issued by the company.
The growth of tokenization has drawn increasing attention from major financial institutions, including BlackRock, which has explored the technology’s potential to improve the efficiency of trading and settlement. Ondo’s rapid expansion helped make the sector a more credible part of the broader digital asset market.
Before launching Ondo, Allman worked on Goldman Sachs’ digital asset team. He had earlier founded ChainStreet Capital, a crypto hedge fund focused on algorithmic and event-driven trading. His career reflected an early and consistent interest in combining market structure, automation and blockchain infrastructure.
Ondo said its president, Ian De Bode, will take over as chief executive. The company indicated that its strategy and long-term mission will remain unchanged. De Bode described the loss as deeply painful and said the firm intends to continue executing on Allman’s vision.
Other members of the company also paid tribute to Allman’s role in shaping Ondo and the wider tokenization industry. Ben Grossman, Ondo’s vice president and head of marketing, said Allman stood out as a rare founder whose vision and determination influenced both the company and the sector around it.
The announcement marks a significant loss for one of the most prominent executives in the digital assets industry at a time when tokenization is gaining momentum among both crypto-native firms and established financial groups. Ondo did not provide any additional details.Kelp DAO says it has completed the restoration of its restaked Ether token after a five-week recovery effort following a $293 million exploit linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group on April 18. The protocol said the final 20,373.7 rsETH tokens were transferred to the LayerZero smart contract that handles locking, minting, burning and releasing rsETH during cross-chain transfers. That step closed the operational phase of the recovery plan.
The protocol’s effort to restore backing for rsETH was supported by several crypto projects under the DeFi United initiative. The recovery followed a major disruption that rippled through decentralized finance and highlighted how closely connected lending, staking and bridging platforms have become.
The attack had immediate consequences for the broader market. A large share of the stolen 116,500 rsETH was used as collateral on Aave to borrow wrapped Ether, leaving about $190 million in bad debt and triggering withdrawals across the lending market. The incident also contributed to one of the worst months for crypto security in recent memory, with April recording about $630 million in losses across 25 hacks.
Kelp opened rsETH bridging between Ethereum mainnet and layer-2 networks after the first recovery tranche of 25,000 rsETH was sent on May 13. Withdrawals resumed the following day, and the protocol said minting, redemptions and rewards operations have since been functioning normally.
While the immediate pressure on Aave has eased, the damage to its liquidity base has been lasting. Its total value locked fell from about $26.4 billion to below $14 billion in the wake of the exploit, ending its position as the largest DeFi protocol by TVL. Data from DefiLlama indicates that outflows from Aave’s lending markets have slowed over the past month, but the platform’s TVL has remained in a narrow range around $14 billion to $15 billion, with little sign of a recovery.
