Uphold Launches Automated Crypto Trading Strategies to Bring Professional Investing to Everyday Users

Uphold has launched "investing on autopilot," introducing two automated, data-driven crypto strategies directly within its platform. By automating the "what" and "when" of digital asset trading through Momentum and Big10 strategies, the infrastructure provider aims to reduce the emotional friction and security risks typically associated with third-party trading bots for retail and enterprise users.

What was announced

Uphold’s "investing on autopilot" suite introduces two distinct strategies: Momentum and Big10. The Momentum Strategy is designed to identify and hold the ten largest crypto assets by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, that exhibit the strongest price trends. When an asset's performance weakens, the system automatically reallocates that portion of the portfolio into cash. This algorithmic approach was backtested against market data from 2021 to 2025, yielding an average annual return of 32.9% and mitigating the impact of the 2022 market crash by approximately 40%.

The Big10 Strategy offers a more traditional index-style approach, maintaining exposure to the top ten digital assets by market capitalization, again excluding stablecoins. This portfolio is weighted by market cap and rebalances automatically as market leadership shifts. Both strategies are managed entirely within the Uphold ecosystem, removing the need for users to manage third-party API keys or external trading bots, which often present security vulnerabilities.

The service is funded in U.S. dollars with no lock-up periods, allowing users to withdraw or top up their accounts at any time. For enterprise clients, these automated capabilities are accessible via API, intended to accelerate the deployment of digital asset services for firms looking to launch crypto offerings in months rather than years.

The companies involved

Uphold positions itself as a core infrastructure provider for on-chain finance, offering a platform that bridges traditional fiat currencies with the digital asset ecosystem. The company provides services to both individual retail investors and enterprise-level clients, including banks and fintechs, through its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model. By providing the underlying rails for trading, custody, and settlement, Uphold enables other firms to launch crypto-related products without building the technology from scratch.

The firm has established a significant presence in the U.S. market, focusing on regulatory compliance and integrated financial services. Its leadership includes CEO Simon McLoughlin and Nancy Beaton, who serves as President Consumer. Uphold’s market position is defined by its "anything-to-anything" trading architecture, which allows for seamless conversion between different asset classes. This latest move into automated, data-driven investing strategies represents an expansion of its retail offering into the wealth management space, moving beyond simple execution and custody to provide active portfolio management tools.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed Uphold’s expansion into various sectors of the digital asset economy. In October 2026, the company partnered with LiquidAcre to provide the trading infrastructure for tokenized real estate. This followed a significant research report from Uphold in September 2026, which found that 75% of U.S. banks have launched or are planning digital asset programs.

Earlier in 2026, Uphold expanded its utility for U.S. users by launching instant crypto-backed loans through a partnership with the Exactly DeFi protocol. The company also demonstrated its enterprise reach in July 2026 when GoMining integrated Uphold’s Platform-as-a-Service to support its global Bitcoin ecosystem. These developments highlight a consistent strategy of embedding Uphold’s infrastructure into both decentralized finance and traditional banking frameworks.

What this means

This launch signals a shift in the crypto exchange landscape from passive brokerage to active, automated wealth management. By embedding momentum-based strategies directly into the platform, Uphold is challenging the necessity of third-party "trading bots" that have historically dominated this niche. The move puts pressure on other major exchanges to offer similar "set-and-forget" products that go beyond simple recurring buys. The focus on security—specifically the elimination of API keys—addresses a major pain point in crypto custody. However, the long-term impact will depend on whether retail investors trust algorithmic rebalancing over their own sentiment during periods of high volatility, especially as the market moves toward institutional-grade tools.