Retail investors gain on-chain direct indexing as AI and tokenized assets rise

Two major shifts are reshaping how retail investors access financial markets. Direct indexing, once limited to wealthy clients, is now available on-chain for everyday users. Meanwhile, AI-driven projects and tokenized assets are gaining traction amid a broader bearish market trend.

On March 23, new platforms and digital assets made headlines as adoption spreads despite cautious market conditions.

Ondo Finance and Glider Finance have partnered to launch a platform allowing retail investors to create custom portfolios of tokenized US stocks. These portfolios automatically rebalance, giving users control over individual assets rather than bundled ETFs. Glider's model holds each underlying stock separately, also enabling trading outside standard market hours.

The move marks a significant step in democratising direct indexing—a service previously reserved for high-net-worth individuals. Ondo already dominates the tokenized stock sector, holding a 58% share of the $908 million market. However, precise comparisons with competitors remain difficult due to fragmented data in this emerging space. Elsewhere, crypto markets showed mixed signals on March 23. Aptos surged past $1.07, climbing over 12% as trading volume spiked by 180% to exceed $211 million. Bittensor also tested the $300 level, rallying more than 66% from its March lows. Yet the broader market structure stayed bearish, with lower highs and lower lows still in place. In the AI sector, DeepSnitch AI is preparing for a full public launch on March 31st. The project's price outlook hinges on real-world use cases, including five live AI agents that compress research into minutes. Many forecasts suggest a potential 200x increase, though such projections remain speculative in volatile conditions.

Retail investors now have on-chain tools to build and manage custom stock portfolios. Ondo and Glider's platform removes traditional barriers, while tokenized assets continue to expand. Despite short-term rallies in Aptos and Bittensor, the overall market trend remains downward.

DeepSnitch AI's upcoming launch adds to the growing list of AI-driven projects, though its long-term value will depend on adoption and utility rather than hype.