Glider and Ondo Finance have introduced a platform for retail investors to create and automate custom portfolios of tokenized US stocks, providing direct exposure to stocks without a brokerage account.
According to the announcement, the platform allows users to create personalized baskets of on-chain stocks that track real-world assets, eliminating 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 allows users to create index-style portfolios with custom weightings that are automatically maintained, avoiding reliance on bundled products.
The platform automatically executes and rebalances these portfolios, allowing users to gain exposure to tokenized stocks without managing individual transactions. The assets track the underlying stocks and can be traded beyond normal market hours.
Huang added that the model avoids the liquidity constraints that have limited previous offerings of tokenized ETFs. He said:
“This is the first time direct indexing has been offered for on-chain stocks… The problem that all on-chain ETFs have is liquidity. There are no liquidity constraints on Glider because they are directly indexed. You own the underlying assets and leverage their underlying liquidity.”
Tokenized stocks on the Ondo platform are designed to reflect the price of their underlying stocks and can be transferred and traded on-chain, while Glider automates portfolio construction and rebalancing without requiring users to execute trades manually.
The initial rollout will focus on tokenized US equities, with plans to expand to additional asset classes such as commodities, while also introducing features allowing users to lend positions and generate yield on their holdings.
An Ondo spokesperson said the platform was currently not available to US users, but said the company held several SEC registrations, positioning it for a possible future US launch.
Related: Binance adds Ondo tokenized shares in latest RWA campaign
Tokenized stocks grow alongside the evolution of crypto ETPs
Tokenized stocks and crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have both grown rapidly over the past year.
Data from RWA.xyz shows that the total value of real-world tokenized assets (RWA) increased sharply to around $26.5 billion, up from around $7.5 billion during the same period last year. Of the on-chain RWAs, approximately $908.5 million are tokenized shares.
Tokenized real-world assets. Source: RWA.xyz
At the same time, crypto ETPs have overtaken spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether ($ETH), with issues exploring increasingly 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 that the product improves access to Strategy’s STRC preferred shares, which are not widely available or easily listed, while expanding distribution and liquidity through its ETP structure.
He added that the structure also simplifies the tax treatment of European investors by managing declarations and withholding taxes at the product level. Moir said:
This is probably the product we’re seeing the most interest in across multiple regions. Since the day it launched, we’ve had more inquiries to the sales team than for any crypto product, to be honest.
Earlier this month, BlackRock expanded its cryptocurrency offering with a Nasdaq-listed product tied to Ethereum staking. The iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) provides spot exposure to Ether while generating potential monthly income by staking a portion of its holdings.
However, Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said the asset management giant plans to remain cautious in expanding its crypto ETF offerings, despite growing interest in more complex structures.
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