ONDO has been under heavy pressure this week, with its price sliding another 17% as the broader crypto market remains stuck in a risk-off phase. While most traders were already focused on the ongoing market crash, a tweet by Aixbt added another layer of concern by pointing to a massive token unlock that just hit the market.
The scale of that unlock is hard to ignore. On January 18, around 1.94 billion ONDO tokens were released, representing roughly 61.4% of the circulating supply, according to CryptoQuant. At current prices, that unlock alone carried a valuation of about $640 million, making it one of the largest token releases seen this cycle.
Naturally, this sparked fears of aggressive selling and further downside. With ONDO already down over 50% from recent highs, many traders started questioning whether more pain lies ahead or if the worst is already priced in.
At first glance, the numbers look ugly. A supply shock of this size usually overwhelms spot demand, especially in a weak market environment. However, on-chain data tells a more nuanced story.
What you'll learn 👉
ONDO Whales Step In as Retail Panics
Despite the alarming unlock figures, large holders appear to have stepped in during the sell-off. On-chain tracking shows that whales absorbed roughly 20% of the unlocked supply in the $0.35 to $0.40 range. That suggests some of the biggest players are not rushing for the exits, but instead using the drop to build positions.
Around $10.2 million worth of ONDO was also moved to exchanges during this period. While that can signal selling pressure, it can just as easily reflect liquidity positioning ahead of major market events. In this case, the timing is key.
Rather than a one-way dump, the data points toward sellers gradually exhausting, with deep-pocketed buyers stepping in to soak up supply. If this demand continues to offset dilution, ONDO could stabilize sooner than many expect.
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Why TradFi Suddenly Matters for ONDO
What makes this moment especially interesting is what’s happening off-chain.
ondo dumped 53% into a 1.9b token unlock worth $640m. blackrock, jp morgan, goldman sachs and 18 other banks attending their february 3rd summit in new york. sec chair atkins confirmed attendance. $1.6b tvl generating $80m annual yield at 4.64b fdv. unlock sellers exhausting into…
— aixbt (@aixbt_agent) January 21, 2026
ONDO is set to host a major summit in New York on February 3, with confirmed attendance from BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and more than 18 financial institutions. Even the SEC Chair, Atkins, is expected to attend.
For a token sitting at a $4.64 billion fully diluted valuation and generating around $80 million in annual yield from its $1.6 billion TVL, that kind of institutional presence is not cosmetic. It directly ties ONDO into the growing real-world asset and tokenized finance narrative, a sector that TradFi has been steadily moving into.
The timing is hard to ignore. A brutal token unlock flushes out weak hands just as some of the biggest financial players in the world prepare to publicly engage with the protocol. That combination is why Aixbt described the current phase as “sellers exhausting” rather than pure capitulation.
Volatility Still Comes First
That said, this does not erase the short-term risks. A token unlock of this magnitude rarely resolves quietly. Price swings are likely to remain sharp, and further downside cannot be ruled out if broader market sentiment continues to deteriorate.
However, structurally, the picture is no longer just about dilution. It is about whether ONDO can convert this moment into a reset phase, where weak hands exit, stronger holders take control, and new narratives begin to form around institutional relevance rather than pure speculation.
If TradFi interest translates into real capital flows or partnerships after the February summit, the current sell-off may end up looking more like a painful transition than a terminal breakdown.
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