Glider
5 known investors
Glider builds non-custodial automated onchain investment portfolios, offered via a consumer app and a B2B API.
Also known as Glider.fi
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 3
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Glider is a New York-based crypto company that lets users build, automate and maintain onchain investment portfolios without giving up custody of their assets. Users connect an existing wallet (for example MetaMask, Rainbow, Safe or WalletConnect) and fund a non-custodial smart account; Glider then executes the target allocation, sources liquidity and manages rebalancing across networks. Platform features described by the company include portfolio construction with allocation tools or curated templates, automated cross-chain execution, integrated lending through DeFi protocols such as Aave to optimize yield, strategy sharing between users, and backtesting against historical data with comparison to benchmarks such as BTC and ETH.
The company operates at both the application and infrastructure layers. Alongside the consumer-facing interface, Glider publishes a B2B API and developer portal that gives application developers and strategy providers infrastructure to create, distribute and monetize onchain strategies, described as "Direct-to-Wallet" strategies distributed wherever Glider is integrated. The API covers strategy discovery and publishing, tenant-scoped enrollment, portfolio operations, automation scheduling, real-time positions and performance reporting across supported EVM and Solana deployments. Core concepts in the documentation include portfolios, strategies, chain-bound smart accounts that enforce a user-delegated execution policy, rebalances, session keys that limit what Glider is authorized to sign, and automation schedules. The company has said the API is intended to embed portfolios into wallets, AI agents, decentralized exchanges and lending protocols.
Glider's own materials also describe work with AI: at the time of its 2025 funding announcement the company said it planned to use artificial intelligence to help users tailor portfolios to their specifications, such as holding a selected basket of coins in an ETF-like structure or holding trending tokens on a particular chain. A recruiting profile describes the product as enabling non-custodial trading strategies for "humans and agents" and references work on intents, chain abstraction, verification, solvers, zkTLS and AVS.
Founding story
Glider was founded in 2024 by Brian Huang and John Johnson. Johnson has said the pair started the company out of frustration with fragmented infrastructure in crypto investing, where implementing and maintaining cross-chain strategies required extended technical troubleshooting. The founders were previously associated with Anchorage Digital, XTX Markets, MIT, 0x and Matcha, and the company said its early team included people who had worked at Coinbase, MetaMask, 0x, Cega and PoolTogether.
Business model
Dual model: a consumer-facing (B2C) interface for building and automating portfolios, and a B2B API sold to developers, wallets, exchanges, lending protocols and AI agents that embeds Glider portfolios into their products, creating B2B2C distribution. Strategy providers can publish and monetize strategies distributed across Glider integrations.
At the time of the April 2025 funding announcement the company said it planned to charge users a management fee calculated as a percentage of assets under management. Glider's blog states its automated onchain portfolios carry no annual fee.
Traction
Publicly disclosed traction is limited. The company raised $4 million in April 2025 and joined the a16z CSX Spring 2025 cohort while still in testing. Later company materials show a live product, published developer documentation and a partnership under which Bitwise Asset Management — described as holding $9 billion in client assets as of July 1, 2026 — publishes Automated Token Portfolios implemented by Glider. No user, AUM or revenue figures are disclosed in the sources.
Latest developments
Glider's blog announces Automated Token Portfolios: rules-based model portfolios of tokenized stocks designed by Bitwise Asset Management and implemented by Glider, held directly in the user's own wallet. Other recent content compares Glider's no-annual-fee onchain portfolios with GCash's GFunds (which carries trust fees of 0.50–1.75% built into fund prices), publishes how-to guides on international access to US equities, and features founder commentary on tokenized stocks and US regulation.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positions itself as an automation-first alternative to traditional crypto asset managers such as Bitwise and Grayscale, differentiated by not taking custody of user assets, and as an infrastructure layer for DeFi portfolio automation.
Users retain custody and keep assets in their own wallets rather than transferring them to a manager or pooled fund, while still following published strategies; automated cross-chain execution abstracts gas, bridging, network switching, price impact and slippage; combination of a consumer app with a developer API that lets third parties distribute strategies; no annual fee on its automated onchain portfolios per company blog.
Technology
Non-custodial architecture built on chain-bound smart accounts that hold portfolio assets and enforce a user-delegated execution policy, combined with session keys that grant Glider only the limited signing capability the user authorizes. The platform automates rebalancing toward target allocations on configurable schedules, sources liquidity and executes trades across networks, and supports EVM and Solana deployments. It exposes a public B2B API with an OpenAPI contract, interactive reference and LLM-oriented documentation index. Additional stated technical areas include intents, chain abstraction, verification, solvers, zkTLS and AVS, plus integrated lending via protocols such as Aave and backtesting against historical data.
Go-to-market
Launched with a waitlist and wallet-connect onboarding for consumers; developer acquisition through public documentation, API keys and a quickstart; distribution partnerships that embed portfolios in third-party apps, including published model portfolios from asset managers such as Bitwise. The company also uses content marketing (blog posts, how-to guides, podcast) and participated in the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, and has recruited via crypto job boards.
Retail and experienced crypto investors who want automated portfolios while retaining custody, plus developers, strategy providers, wallets, decentralized exchanges, lending protocols and AI agent builders that integrate the B2B API.
Geography
Headquartered in New York; participated in an accelerator cohort in San Francisco. Product is delivered online across supported EVM and Solana networks, and company content addresses international investors (for example guides for buying US stocks from Turkey and a comparison with the Philippines-focused GFunds offering in GCash).
History
Founded in 2024 in New York. In April 2025 the company announced a $4 million strategic funding round led by a16z CSX and simultaneously disclosed its participation in the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator 04 Spring Cohort in San Francisco; at that point the product was still in testing with a waitlist and a planned launch in the following months. The company subsequently shipped a live product and a developer-facing B2B API, and its blog reports a launch of Automated Token Portfolios with Bitwise Asset Management, in which Bitwise publishes rules-based model portfolios of tokenized stocks that Glider implements in users' own wallets.
Risks & controversies
No controversies are reported in the sources. Noted business risks are early stage and limited disclosed traction, dependence on third-party DeFi protocols and cross-chain execution, competition from established crypto asset managers, and regulatory uncertainty around tokenized equities referenced in the company's own commentary.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsBitwise Asset Management launched Automated Token Portfolios — published, rules-based model portfolios of tokenized stocks designed by Bitwise and implemented by Glider, held directly in users' own wallets. The blog states Bitwise held $9 billion in client assets as of July 1, 2026.
Glider announced a $4 million strategic funding round led by a16z CSX with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Ventures, First Commit, Selini Capital, GSR, Generative Ventures, Pivot Global and MoonPay Ventures. Valuation was not disclosed; proceeds earmarked for hiring and marketing.
$4M source ↗
Glider announced participation in the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator Spring 2025 cohort in San Francisco, disclosed alongside its funding round.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Glider - An Enterprise Grade Embedded Lending Platformgliderfi.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Glider do?
- Glider builds non-custodial automated onchain investment portfolios, offered via a consumer app and a B2B API.
- Who are Glider's investors?
- Glider's investors include Coinbase Ventures, Generative Ventures.