In a bid to democratize access to the U.S. securities market, Ondo Finance has launched Ondo Global Markets, a platform for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, in collaboration with Alpaca, a brokerage infrastructure provider. This initiative aims to overcome traditional market barriers such as high fees, limited access, and cumbersome settlement processes by leveraging blockchain technology to offer over 100 tokenized assets, with plans to expand to over 1,000 by the end of the year. These tokenized assets, which emulate the behavior of stablecoins for ease of use in decentralized finance (DeFi), are fully backed by U.S. stocks and ETFs held by U.S. broker-dealers. The platform offers 24/7 transferability and deep liquidity, and it is initially available in selected Asia-Pacific, African, and Latin American markets, with further expansions planned. Despite the promising outlook, potential investors are cautioned about inherent risks and the lack of direct equity ownership, voting rights, or dividend entitlements associated with tokenized securities.