Who Controls Ondo? Inside the Mega Succession War Shaking Crypto’s RWA Giant

Who Controls Ondo 2 — Source: CoinGape Nathan Allman’s death triggered a leadership and ownership dispute at Ondo Finance. Kathleen Allman’s estate rights became central to the battle over Ondo’s board and CEO position. Delaware and Hawaii proceedings have added new layers to the fight over control of the tokenization company. The death of Nathan Allman did not simply leave Ondo Finance without its founder. It exposed a governance problem at one of crypto’s biggest tokenization companies. Allman, who died unexpectedly in May 2026 at 32, was not just Ondo’s CEO. He was also its sole director and controlling shareholder. The company had a two-seat board, but the second seat was vacant. His death therefore created an unusual corporate vacuum in the company. Ondo was left without a sitting director at the same time that the voting power attached to Allman’s shares moved into his estate. That gap is now at the center of a Delaware corporate-control battle involving Ondo’s acting CEO Ian De Bode, Allman’s mother Kathleen Allman, other members of the Allman family and an early Ondo investor. The fight is not simply over who gets the CEO title. It is raising multiple questions. This includes who could legally appoint directors, who could exercise Allman’s voting rights. It also includes whether actions taken during the succession period were valid and whether a proposed multimillion-dollar compensation package could stand. Here’s how: Is Ian De Bode Still the Ondo President? The starting point of the dispute is Allman’s unusual concentration of power. According to the litigation, he was Ondo’s CEO, sole director and controlling shareholder when he died. Because the company’s second board seat was vacant, there was no sitting director left to convene a board meeting or formally appoint a successor. The SEC’s own records also provide a window into Allman’s position inside the wider Ondo structure. An SEC Form ADV identifies Nathan Allman as a shareholder and control person of Ondo Finance. His death therefore created two separate problems at once. There was a management vacancy. And there was a shareholder-control problem. The second issue became particularly important because Allman did not leave a will, according to the subsequent estate litigation. Right into few hours, Ian De Bode stepped in as President after Ondo finance founder’s death. Ian De Bode had already been running important parts of Ondo’s business as president. According to Kathleen Allman’s Delaware complaint, De Bode argued that Ondo’s bylaws allowed him to automatically become CEO. The estate disputes that interpretation, arguing that the CEO vacancy had to be filled through board action. That is a difficult proposition when, according to the complaint, there was no sitting board at the time.