Ondo Finance has decided not to keep building a standalone blockchain for its tokenized real-world asset business, opting instead to retain Ethereum as the settlement layer while moving execution and verification off-chain into trusted execution environments. The shift marks a reversal from the earlier Ondo Chain vision, which had been pitched as a Layer 1 for tokenized assets with permissioned validators, staking rewards, and native bridging, and had already seen testing activity involving JPMorgan’s Kinexys and Chainlink on tokenized Treasuries. The article traces why Ondo made that change and places it in a broader market context. It argues that blockchains bundle consensus, replication, transparency, and final settlement into one system, and that this package can become a burden for order matching engines that need deterministic sequencing and low latency. It also compares Ondo’s redesign with traditional market infrastructure such as the NYSE, Nasdaq, and DTCC, and with crypto-native examples including Base, Robinhood Chain, dYdX, Hyperliquid, and Unichain. The piece also raises a second issue: whether trusted execution environments actually solve the trust problem. While Ondo plans to split code verification, key custody, and server hosting across separate parties and later add proof-of-stake and slashing, recent hardware attacks on secure enclaves show that the model still carries physical-world risk, even if final state remains posted on-chain.

The Australian Securities Exchange is facing a legal challenge from one of its own shareholders over the abandoned blockchain-based CHESS project. Rosherville Pty Ltd has notified ASX that it will seek permission from the Federal Court to file a statutory derivative action against certain former ASX officers and directors. If the court grants leave, Rosherville would pursue the case on behalf of ASX. ASX says the action does not allege wrongdoing by ASX itself, but it has not identified which former officials are involved, what obligations they allegedly breached, or what remedies would be sought. The Federal Court has not yet decided whether the case can proceed. The case comes after ASX spent years working on a blockchain replacement for its CHESS clearing and settlement system, suspending the project in November 2022 and abandoning the blockchain approach in May 2023. On July 3, 2026, the Federal Court ordered ASX to pay a civil penalty of $14.4 million and $2.1 million to cover the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's legal costs. Cointelegraph first reported the case.

Ondo Finance has decided it will not run both Ondo Chain and Ondo Network in parallel, with CEO Ian De Bode confirming the company has abandoned the blockchain-based execution model and will keep Ethereum as the settlement layer instead. The revised design moves execution into trusted execution environments, where approved code runs inside hardware-isolated enclaves and key material is split across operators, while asset transfers continue to settle on Ethereum. The argument behind the shift is straightforward: for order matching, Ondo sees blockchain as an expensive bundle of consensus, replication, transparency, and final-state settlement. In its view, consensus and replication add latency, while transparency exposes information that a trading venue does not want to publish in real time. The piece contrasts this approach with examples from traditional finance and crypto, including ASX’s failed CHESS replacement, DTCC’s tokenization push, Coinbase’s Base, Robinhood’s tokenized stock effort, dYdX’s app-chain move, Hyperliquid’s validator model, and Unichain’s struggle to capture Uniswap activity. The article also notes that trusted execution environments come with their own risks. Recent hardware attacks against Intel and AMD, including the TEE.fail research, showed that physical access can break assumptions around enclave security. Ondo’s next phase will separate code attestation, key custody, and server hosting across different entities, while posting final state on-chain and adding proof-of-stake and slashing later.

Rosherville Pty Ltd, a shareholder of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has notified the exchange that it plans to ask the Federal Court for permission to bring a statutory derivative action against some former ASX officers and directors. If the application succeeds, Rosherville would pursue the litigation on behalf of ASX. ASX has said the proposed proceedings do not target ASX itself. However, the exchange has not disclosed the identities of the former officials, the specific duties allegedly breached, or the remedies that would be sought. The Federal Court has not yet ruled on whether the case can proceed. The development follows ASX's long-running effort to replace its CHESS clearing and settlement system with a blockchain-based platform. That project began in 2016, was paused in November 2022, and saw the blockchain approach abandoned in May 2023. On July 3, 2026, the Federal Court ordered ASX to pay a $14.4 million fine, plus $2.1 million in costs to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).