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Ondo Finance is in a full-blown corporate crisis. The company’s founder, Nathan Allman, died earlier this year, and what followed has turned into a messy legal war over who actually runs the place.
The fight is now playing out in Delaware Chancery Court, where Allman’s estate has filed three separate cases. The estate wants a judge to settle who legally controls Ondo Finance — and it wants major corporate decisions frozen until that question gets answered. It’s a rare, ugly situation for a crypto company that had been positioning itself as a serious player in the tokenized real-world assets space.
What Happened After Allman Died
Allman wasn’t just the founder. He was CEO, sole director, and controlling shareholder — basically the whole table. When he died in May, his voting power passed to his estate. But the estate couldn’t actually use that power until his mother, Kathleen Allman, was formally appointed as the estate’s representative. That happened June 26. So for weeks, there was a gap. Nobody with legal authority to vote the controlling stake could act.
Ian De Bode moved fast in that window. According to court documents, De Bode said Ondo’s bylaws made him CEO automatically. He then elected himself sole director and started making corporate moves — hiring advisors, approving grants. The estate says none of that had proper board approval, and that De Bode basically grabbed the wheel while the car was unattended.
De Bode didn’t see it that way.
He called the estate’s claims meritless and said the company has strong backing from key investors and the Ondo Foundation. He wants to fight it out in court and says he’s still committed to Ondo’s mission.
Kathleen Allman Takes the Interim CEO Chair
Once Kathleen Allman had legal standing to vote the estate’s shares, she didn’t come in swinging — at first. She joined the board, reaffirmed De Bode as president, and asked for corporate records. Pretty standard stuff for someone trying to get a handle on things.
But De Bode and the company’s legal counsel, per the estate’s account, refused to recognize her board actions or hand over the records she requested. That’s when things escalated hard.
Kathleen Allman expanded the board, brought in new directors, and on July 24 removed De Bode from every position he held at the company. She appointed herself interim CEO. The estate is framing her leadership as temporary — a stabilizing move while the board hunts for a permanent CEO and keeps the business running.
Not exactly a clean handover.
The estate’s filings make clear that the governance vacuum isn’t just an internal headache. There are real concerns about contracts and financial decisions that could be affected while nobody knows with certainty who has authority to sign off on anything. That kind of uncertainty is bad for any company. For a crypto firm trying to land institutional clients in tokenized finance, it’s probably worse.
New CFO Hired Amid the Chaos
Even with all this going on, Ondo made a significant hire. Adam Schlisman, a former Blockchain.com executive, came on as the company’s new chief financial officer. No small appointment during a period like this — bringing in a CFO with that kind of background suggests someone is trying to keep the lights on and signal continuity to investors and partners.
Ondo’s board, for its part, put out a statement reaffirming its commitment to the founder’s vision. Allman had built Ondo around the idea that onchain markets are the future of finance. Whether that vision survives this fight intact is a different question.
The court hasn’t ruled yet. Everything in the estate’s filings is one side of the story — De Bode will get his say, and courts in Delaware tend to move carefully on corporate governance disputes. Delaware Chancery Court handles more of these cases than probably anywhere else in the country, so at least the venue knows what it’s doing.
What’s clear is that Ondo Finance is now a company with two people claiming some form of authority, a CFO trying to hold the financial side together, and a judge somewhere in the middle who hasn’t weighed in yet. The estate wants a fast ruling. De Bode wants his day in court.
Adam Schlisman joined as CFO while all of this was unfolding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who removed Ian De Bode as CEO of Ondo Finance?
Kathleen Allman, Nathan Allman’s mother and the estate’s appointed representative, removed De Bode from all company positions during a board meeting on July 24 and appointed herself interim CEO.
Who is Adam Schlisman and why does his hire matter?
Adam Schlisman is a former Blockchain.com executive appointed as Ondo Finance’s new chief financial officer during the governance dispute, a move seen as an effort to maintain operational continuity.
