BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) has built three model portfolios that will trade as blockchain tokens, and Ondo Finance launches them on Thursday, 24th September, 2026. They are the first portfolios the world’s largest asset manager has designed for another firm to tokenize.
The Brief
- BlackRock’s three tokenized portfolios are high-income, diversified growth and high-growth, drawing on stock, bond and bitcoin ETFs by profile.
- Ondo Finance is launching seven tokenized model portfolios on Thursday, and BlackRock designed three of them.
- Self-executing software buys shares in the underlying ETFs automatically whenever an investor buys one of the portfolio tokens.
BlackRock designs the portfolios, Ondo issues the tokens
As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the deal splits the work. BlackRock builds the portfolios, and Ondo Finance tokenizes them by issuing one token that tracks each portfolio.
Model portfolios are preset investing templates. Financial advisers use them to outsource investment decisions to professional managers instead of picking every fund themselves.
In tokenized form, funds, stocks and other assets can trade on a blockchain, the digital ledger behind most cryptocurrencies. Ondo’s version adds automation on top. Buying a token sets off software that purchases the matching ETF shares, so each token rests on conventional funds that already trade.
BlackRock is bringing three investment portfolios to the blockchain through @Ondo Finance.
— CoinLaw (@coinlaw_io) September 24, 2026
The tokenized portfolios will hold a mix of stock, bond and Bitcoin ETFs, with software automatically purchasing the underlying shares as investors buy tokens. pic.twitter.com/ifyqeDl8Jd
The ETF mix in each BlackRock portfolio varies by profile. The report did not publish the weightings, so the share of bitcoin exposure in each template is still unknown.
Where a portfolio includes bitcoin, the result is a neat loop. A crypto-native token gets its bitcoin through exchange-traded funds, which puts Wall Street’s wrapper inside a blockchain wrapper.
The deal is BlackRock’s latest move to bring traditional assets onto crypto rails, following its earlier tokenization push. The report did not name the managers behind Ondo’s other four portfolios.
For Ondo, that lineup matters as much as the technology. A seven-portfolio shelf with a BlackRock anchor looks more like an adviser product menu than a single crypto launch. The other four managers will face comparison with that name from day one.
Advisers already run on model portfolios
A Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR) survey of 400 advisers found that 87% use model portfolios. Another 25% said they use them exclusively.
Assets inside model portfolios climbed to $9.8 trillion in June, up from $7.7 trillion a year earlier.
Those figures explain the choice of product. BlackRock is taking a format advisers already buy in volume and moving it onto a blockchain. That could give the tokens a ready audience that a brand-new crypto fund would have to build from scratch.
The exclusive users stand out. An adviser who runs every client account on models already trusts someone else to pick the funds. For that adviser, a token changes the plumbing and settlement, while the strategy stays in BlackRock’s hands.
The reporting shows how the tokens buy ETFs. It doesn’t establish the legal structure, including whether a holder owns fund shares directly or holds a claim on the issuer.
Advisers reviewing the tokens can start with two checks. They can confirm which ETFs sit inside each portfolio, and what claim a token gives on the underlying shares.
The report also left several details open:
- What fees do Ondo and BlackRock charge on each token?
- Which blockchain carries the tokens?
- Who is eligible to buy them?
- How often do the portfolios rebalance, and does the software handle that step too?
The seven portfolios go live with Ondo’s launch on Thursday. From then on, every token sale triggers a purchase of the underlying ETFs. Token demand will therefore show up as buying in ordinary ETFs. That gives BlackRock’s first portfolios built for outside tokenization a visible test in a growing tokenized asset market.
