Jack Paul 
DeFi Platform Partners with Ondo for Equity Markets
Felix Protocol, a DeFi platform and HIP-3 provider, is working with Ondo Finance to bring spot equities to the Hyperliquid ecosystem. This collaboration will use Ondo Global Markets to launch more than 100 U.S. equity markets on Felix initially, with plans to expand to over 1,000 equities in the coming months.
The launch will start on Felix’s native trading interface on HyperEVM, which is Hyperliquid’s Layer 1 blockchain. The team hasn’t shared when these assets might appear on Hypercore. Charlie, a contributor to Felix Protocol, explained their approach: “We won’t be interacting with Hyperliquid spot to start to avoid the need to bootstrap liquidity on each individual market, which has been a main pain point for spot equities onchain to date.”
Liquidity and Market Structure
Through the Ondo integration, these markets will launch with deep liquidity without relying on automated market maker systems. The announcement suggests this will enable “multi-million dollar equity orders Day 1.” Ondo Global Markets will provide 24/7 exposure to supported assets, with all mints and redemptions going through Felix’s smart contracts.
Ondo currently holds the position as the largest issuer of tokenized stocks in DeFi, representing 53% of the total market with $228 million in circulating market capitalization. That’s a significant portion of the space, though I think the numbers might shift as more players enter.
The Spot vs Derivatives Discussion
The rise of tokenized equity perpetuals has created ongoing discussion in DeFi about the efficiency of 24/7 derivatives compared to stocks that lack round-the-clock spot markets. Some protocols, like Ostium, stick to traditional market hours and have made strong arguments for only offering trading when legacy stock markets are open.
But the data shows something interesting: traders seem to prefer derivative exposure. Ostium recorded $1.3 billion in volume since early 2026, while TradeXYZ saw $7 billion in derivatives volumes during the same period. That’s quite a difference, though I’m not entirely sure what explains it completely.
Equity derivatives have become a focus for modern exchanges, including Lighter, which recently launched its native token and equity perpetuals. What’s notable is that the growth of tokenized equity derivatives appears to be helping the spot ecosystem too.
Market Growth and Distribution
The tokenized stock market capitalization keeps hitting new highs almost weekly, crossing $400 million on January 12. According to TokenTerminal data, Solana currently leads in tokenized stock market capitalization within DeFi, accounting for 39.2% of the total market. Ethereum follows with 37.5%.
That distribution between chains is closer than I would have expected. The competition between blockchain platforms for this market share could get interesting as more institutional players get involved. The Felix-Ondo partnership on HyperEVM represents another step in bringing traditional financial assets onchain, though how quickly adoption will happen remains to be seen.