Glider and Ondo Finance have introduced a platform to let retail investors build and automate custom portfolios of tokenized US stocks, offering direct exposure to equities without a brokerage account.
According to the announcement, the platform allows users to create personalized baskets of onchain stocks that track real-world assets, removing the need for wallets, gas fees or manual transaction management.
Glider co-founder and CEO Brian Huang told Cointelegraph that unlike traditional exchange-traded funds, which bundle assets into fixed products, the platform lets users construct index-like portfolios with custom weightings that are automatically maintained, avoiding reliance on pooled products.
The platform automatically executes and rebalances these portfolios, allowing users to gain exposure to tokenized equities without managing individual trades. The assets track underlying shares and can be traded beyond standard market hours.
Huang added that the model avoids the liquidity constraints that have limited earlier tokenized ETF offerings. He said:
“This is the first time direct indexing has been offered for onchain stocks… The problem that all ETFs have had on chain is liquidity. There’s no liquidity constraint on Glider because these are directly indexed. You hold the underlying assets and tap into their underlying liquidity.”
Tokenized stocks on Ondo’s platform are designed to mirror the price of their underlying shares and can be transferred and traded onchain, while Glider automates portfolio construction and rebalancing without requiring users to execute transactions manually.
The initial rollout will focus on tokenized US equities, with plans to expand into additional asset classes such as commodities, while also introducing features that allow users to lend positions and generate yield on their holdings.
A spokesperson for Ondo said the platform is not currently available to US users but said the company holds several SEC registrations, positioning it for a potential future launch in the United States.
Related: Binance adds Ondo’s tokenized stocks in latest RWA push
Tokenized stocks grow alongside evolution of crypto ETPs
Tokenized equities and crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have both expanded rapidly over the past year.
Data from RWA.xyz shows the total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) has grown sharply to around $26.5 billion, up from around $7.5 billion the same time last year. Among the RWAs onchain, around $908.5 million are tokenized stocks.
Tokenized real-world assets. Source: RWA.xyz
At the same time, crypto ETPs have moved beyond spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether ($ETH) funds, with issuers increasingly exploring more complex and actively managed products.
In February, crypto ETP issuer 21Shares launched a new product offering European investors exposure to a preferred stock issued by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the largest public holder of Bitcoin. The 21Shares Strategy Yield ETP is available to institutional and retail investors and offers a dividend linked to Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings.
21Shares president Duncan Moir told Cointelegraph the product improves access to Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, which is not widely available or easily cross-listed, while expanding distribution and liquidity through its ETP structure.
He added that the structure also simplifies tax treatment for European investors by handling reporting and withholding at the product level. Moir said:
It’s probably the product we’re seeing the most interest in across multiple regions. From the day we launched it, we’ve had more inbound inquiries to the sales team than for any crypto product, to be honest.
Earlier this month, BlackRock expanded its crypto lineup with a Nasdaq-listed product tied to Ethereum staking. The iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) provides spot Ether exposure while generating potential monthly income by staking a portion of its holdings.
However, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said the asset management behemoth plans to remain cautious in expanding its crypto ETF offerings, despite growing interest in more complex structures.
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