Ondo wins Liechtenstein approval to offer tokenized stocks in Europe
Ondo Global Markets, a US-based tokenization platform, has received regulatory approval to offer tokenized stocks to European investors.
Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA) has granted Ondo approval to launch its tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the European Union and the broader European Economic Area (EEA), the company announced on Tuesday.
“With this milestone, more than 500 million investors in 30 European countries can soon access regulated exposure to US markets directly onchain,” Ondo said.
The news came a few weeks after Ondo partnered with Boerse Stuttgart Group’s digital asset arm BX Digital to enable the tokenized stock trading in Switzerland on Nov. 3.
Liechtenstein adopts MiCA despite not being EU member state
Liechtenstein’s approval positions Ondo to offer tokenized stocks and ETFs to retail investors across all 30 EEA countries, including all 27 EU nations plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The regulatory milestone positions Ondo to operate within a “unified, regulated European framework consistent with established investor-protection standards,” the company said.
Ondo did not specify the framework under which it secured approval to offer tokenized stocks in Europe, but highlighted Liechtenstein’s passporting regime, which extends across the EEA.
As an EEA member state, Liechtenstein implemented the EU-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework through the EEA MiCA Implementation Act, EWR-MiCA-DG, which entered into force in February.
Following the expiry of the transitional regime on Dec. 31, 2025, crypto asset service providers (CASPs) must hold MiCA authorization from Liechtenstein’s FMA.
Related: Ondo tokenizes over 100 US stocks and ETFs on BNB Chain
Cointelegraph approached Ondo and the FMA for comment regarding the nature of the approval but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The news arrives amid rising tensions within the EU over the extent of supervisory authority that member states should retain under MiCA. According to reports, EU officials are drafting plans to designate the European Securities and Markets Authority as the direct regulator for all CASPs across the bloc.
Magazine: Crypto carnage — Is Bitcoin’s 4-year cycle over? Trade Secrets
New Hampshire has approved the issuance of a $100 million municipal bond backed by Bitcoin, in what appears to be the first structure of its kind at the US state level.
Minutes from a Nov. 17 meeting of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA), the state’s business financing agency, show the board planned “to consider approving a resolution authorizing up to $100,000,000 bonds for a project to acquire and hold digital currency.”
Minutes from the following day record that directors voted to “approve the preliminary official intent, with no reservation, to issue a taxable conduit revenue bond for WaveRose Depositor, LLC of up to $100,000,000.”
According to a Wednesday Crypto in America report, the bond is backed by Bitcoin (BTC) and would let companies borrow against overcollateralized BTC held by a private custodian. The state or taxpayers do not back the bond; instead, BFA approves and oversees a private deal, while Bitcoin — reportedly held in custody by BitGo — covers investors.
According to the report, asset manager Wave Digital Assets and bond specialist Rosemawr Management designed the bond to utilize Bitcoin as collateral under the same rules that govern municipal and corporate bonds. Wave co-founder Les Borsai said the goal is to “bridge traditional fixed income with digital assets” for institutional investors.
Related: New Hampshire, North Dakota introduce bills for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
“We believe this structure shows how public and private sectors can collaborate to responsibly unlock the value of digital assets and digital asset reserves,” he added.
The borrower is expected to post approximately 160% of the bond’s value in Bitcoin as collateral, and if the price of BTC drops below roughly 130%, a liquidation would ensure that bondholders stay whole. According to BFA Executive Director James Key-Wallace, fees from the transaction will fund the local innovation and entrepreneurship program, the Bitcoin Economic Development Fund.
New Hampshire dives headfirst into crypto
The news follows New Hampshire becoming the first US state to allow its government to invest in cryptocurrencies in May after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a bill allowing the municipality to “invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”
Related: US won’t start Bitcoin reserve until other countries do: Mike Alfred
New Hampshire is also working on a bill to deregulate local cryptocurrency mining operations. In late October, a committee voted 4–2 to send the measure for further review in an interim study after it had been deadlocked in the State Senate twice.
The local administration is viewed as particularly welcoming to the cryptocurrency industry. In early February, Brendan Cochrane, an Anti-Money Laundering specialist at YK Law in New York City, argued that it could become an alternative for crypto companies relocating to the Bahamas.
The latest moves build on a longer history of crypto engagement. Back in 2015, New Hampshire was already working on a bill that would have allowed the state government to accept tax and fee payments in Bitcoin.
The bill ultimately failed in 2016, but it shows how early the local administration began to show interest in this asset class. Additionally, as early as 2016, some advocates were already arguing that New Hampshire was among the world’s most Bitcoin-friendly communities.
Magazine: Quitting Trump’s top crypto job wasn’t easy: Bo Hines
World Liberty Financial, a crypto company closely tied to US President Donald Trump and his family, is facing fresh scrutiny after two Democratic Party senators urged federal regulators to investigate the firm over alleged ties to sanctioned actors in North Korea and Russia.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed warned that the company’s token sales may have exposed US national security to risk, citing evidence that WLFI governance tokens were purchased by blockchain addresses linked to foreign entities, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
The concerns stem from a September report by nonpartisan watchdog group Accountable.US, which claimed that World Liberty Financial sold tokens to traders with onchain connections to the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s state-backed hacking operation, as well as a sanctioned Russian sanctions-evasion tool, an Iranian crypto exchange and Tornado Cash.
The senators said these sales “gave adversaries a seat at the table” by granting them governance rights in the protocol. World Liberty Financial denied the allegations, telling CNBC it performed “rigorous AML/KYC checks” on all presale buyers and rejected millions of dollars from those who failed screening.
Related: Trump Organization to tokenize Maldives resort development for early investors
Trump family controls 75% of WLFI token revenue
WLFI’s ownership structure has added political weight to the controversy. According to its website, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump all serve as co-founders, while Donald Trump is listed as “Co-Founder Emeritus.” A Trump-affiliated entity, DT Marks DEFI LLC, holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, valued at more than $3 billion, and is entitled to 75% of revenue from token sales.
Warren and Reed argued that this raises a direct financial conflict of interest for administration officials, noting that three-quarters of all token-sale proceeds “flow directly to President Trump and his family.”
The senators also warned that the company’s rapid expansion, including plans for a debit card and tokenized commodities, combined with alleged weak compliance controls, “risks supercharging illicit finance activity.”
World Liberty Financial has faced growing political and regulatory pressure in recent months. Its USD1 stablecoin was used in a $2 billion investment into Binance by UAE-backed fund MGX, shortly before the UAE secured a major chip agreement from Washington.
Cointelegraph reached out to WLFI for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Related: CZ’s lawyer denies Binance co-founder’s pardon was ‘pay-to-play’
Expert says some allegations stem from false positives
Meanwhile, a recent analysis by blockchain researcher Nick Bax has raised doubts about allegations that a North Korea–linked wallet invested in WLFI. Bax reviewed the transactions cited in the watchdog report and found they were the result of false positives, not actual interactions with sanctioned entities.
According to Bax, the transactions described as “Lazarus-linked” were generated by a joke memecoin contract called Dream Cash, which automatically routes tokens from an address labeled as Lazarus Group to anyone who claims them. Bax confirmed that an independent user, @shryder1337, claimed the tokens as a joke, not as a transaction with North Korea.
“The worst part of this all (other than my Senator disseminating disinfo), is Shryder wasn’t just falsely accused of being a DPRK hacker; it appears his big bag WLFI tokens (~$95k) got frozen as a result of this false positive,” the analyst wrote.
Magazine: 2026 is the year of pragmatic privacy in crypto — Canton, Zcash and more
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024