Ondo said it brought "real" stock trading to Solana. Backpack's CEO said the stocks weren't real at all

Ondo Finance, a tokenized asset issuer, tried to sell its new Solana stock tokens as "real 24/7 trading."

What followed was less a clean product launch than a public fight over what the word "real" means when the stock is on-chain, the wrapper is a note and the exit is still cash.

The dispute began after Ondo used a Thursday post on X to present its Solana rollout as the serious version of always-on tokenized equities.

• The company said Solana users could now access "real market liquidity" through SPYon, QQQon, CRCLon, NVDAon, TSLAon and GOOGLon.
• And it also aimed directly at competitors, saying that "while others have claimed 24/7 trading, this has only ever been for CEX or DEX transfers where limited liquidity leads to consistently high execution costs."

Real stocks or stock exposure

And that was the problem for Armani Ferrante, the CEO of Backpack, a Solana-focused crypto exchange, that has also launched its own tokenized stock product, and Ondo's "others" line landed directly in that fight.

"Just to clarify, since you called out other products," Ferrante wrote in reply, adding further that Ondo's "24/7 liquidity model" meant it had its own centralized exchange for minting and redemptions, while the tokens were cash settled, carried "no claim to a security entitlement" and couldn't move between a brokerage account and Solana.

"So, I think it's fair to say, closer to a CFD than an actual stock," Ferrante wrote, referring to a product that gives price exposure rather than the stock itself.

• Per Ondo's own dosc, tokenized stocks are structured notes issued by Ondo Global Markets BVI, with payments tied to the value of the underlying asset.
• The same documentation says tokenholders "do not have shareholder voting rights, shareholder information rights or other shareholder rights from the issuer of the underlying securities."
• The exit is also cash-based, for now, as Ondo says users can redeem to USDon or USDC, while "redemptions to USD via bank wire are not currently supported."

"You can try to shame our legal structure"

Ian De Bode, president of Ondo Finance, pushed back and accused Ferrante of misdescribing the product.

Replying to Ferrante's claim, De Bode wrote that Ondo's 24/7 minting and burning model "does not rely on a CEX," arguing that this was why Ondo's pricing was "the best in the market."

De Bode also said tokenized stocks on Ondo "carry a security interest in the collateral," and called Ferrante's criticism of Ondo's note and special-purpose-vehicle structure "not serious."

• He also argued that Backpack's own legal setup is "a claim on an SPV holding the underlying assets," unless Backpack's docs are false.
• He added that redemption into the underlying share and transfer into another brokerage could be powered by Alpaca's Instant Tokenization Network, making it, in his view, "not really a differentiator."

But as Ferrante argues, the wrapper wasn't even the point. The product was.

• Backpack's learn page describes tokenized securities on it as a "tokenized claim" and its legal framework as a "claim on SPV holding the underlying assets."
• The same docs say tokenized securities can be "redeemed into the underlying real shares," with brokerage transfers available after redemption into the corresponding security entitlement.