Ondo Finance has integrated proxy voting capabilities into its tokenized equities platform through a partnership with Broadridge Financial Solutions, allowing crypto wallet holders to participate in corporate governance decisions. The feature, announced April 28, enables investors to cast voting preferences on their tokenized stocks and ETFs directly from blockchain wallets, then applies those votes when Ondo exercises shareholder rights on the underlying securities it holds.
Closing the Governance Gap in Tokenized Assets
Tokenized equities strip away traditional barriers to stock ownership—settlement time, custody fees, liquidity constraints. But they have historically lacked one critical feature: voting rights. Ondo’s tokens remain legally separate from the underlying shares and do not confer direct shareholder status. The Broadridge partnership solves this asymmetry by creating a bridge layer. Investors can now access corporate filings, proxy statements, and governance tools typically locked behind traditional brokerage accounts. Matthieu de Vergnes, Ondo’s global head of institutional, framed it directly: “You get all the benefits of being onchain—freely transferable, compatible with DeFi—and on top of that, you get the governance that you have from the underlying.”
Tokenized Equities Hit Inflection Point
The timing reflects explosive sector growth. The tokenized equities market has tripled in size over the past year, according to RWA.xyz data. Ondo alone holds $700 million in tokenized stocks and ETFs across 250+ securities on its Global Markets platform. The broader tokenized equities sector now locks in $1.1 billion in total value. This scale attracts institutional scrutiny. Danielle Gurrieri, Broadridge’s senior VP and head of product management, emphasized the infrastructure need: proxy voting will “go a long way in making the tokenized world more scalable, giving that level of trust to end investors.” For a sector built on replacing traditional intermediaries, governance integration signals maturation.
RWA Infrastructure Moves Closer to Parity
Real-world asset tokenization has historically lagged behind DeFi in one dimension: institutional-grade operational infrastructure. Custody, settlement, and compliance tooling exist. Governance did not. Broadridge’s involvement—the company processes roughly half of all proxy votes globally—legitimizes the technical and legal pathway for on-chain equity voting. This removes a structural competitive disadvantage for tokenized assets competing directly with traditional brokerage accounts. Investors no longer sacrifice voting power for on-chain liquidity.
Next Steps Remain Unclear
Ondo has not disclosed specific launch timing for the full feature rollout, the weighting mechanism for investor voting preferences, or whether regulatory approval is required. The company also has not announced current user numbers on its tokenized equities platform. These details will determine how quickly institutional capital migrates from traditional brokers to on-chain infrastructure.
