Gluon money
bringing web3 and social pay to everyday banking

Gluon money
bringing web3 and social pay to everyday banking

A social pay neobank powered by blockchain. Gluon makes global saving, spending, and rewards fast, simple, and accessible, while giving users full control of their funds.

PRODUCT DESIGN · APP
YEAR

2025 - 2026

DURATION

7 months to Beta Launch

ROLE

Lead Product Designer

DEVICE

iOS, Android

OVERVIEW

Gluon is a blockchain powered social payments app built on stablecoins and tokenised assets. It introduces Web3 banking through familiar financial behaviours and reward led ownership, allowing users to experience the value of digital assets without needing to understand blockchain complexity.


Users can send, earn, and spend instantly, join interactive reward events, and share value socially, all while maintaining full custody of their funds.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

End to end Design
Customer journey

Product strategy

Design system

User testing

Stakeholder alignment

Goals

  • Accelerate user adoption and activation

  • Onboard users into Web3 with minimal friction

  • Build trust and clarity around digital assets

  • Support both power users and beginners

  • Enable fast delivery and scalable product growth

  • Design for multi market scalability

The challenge

Blockchain can offer many practical advantages for modern banking:

  • Near instant settlement

  • Global accessibility

  • Higher yield savings

  • Full ownership of real world assets

However, most consumers currently:

  • Don't understand blockchain infrastructure

  • Associate “crypto” with volatility and risk

  • Experience high friction in Web3 native interfaces particularly during onboarding

The challenge was not explaining blockchain, but designing a low friction entry into De-Fi enabled banking. Allowing users to experience the value of digital assets through familiar behaviours first, gradually building trust, confidence, and natural adoption.

The outcome

Built from the ground up in 3 months, the first phase of Gluon is currently in Beta before full product launch.

With the backing by Circle and Alliance, Gluon has already onboarded 4,500+ users pre launch in the first 4 months with a maintained 41% MAU's over 4 months.

4,500+

Acquired users pre launch

41%

Remained MAU's

~29%

WAU/MAU stickiness

Low friction entry into decentralised-finance

Low friction entry into decentralised-finance

Gluon’s adoption strategy focuses on building confidence before complexity, using social payments and gamified rewards to move users from curiosity to habitual money use before introducing deeper Web3 concepts.

Leading with familiarity around earning, sending, receiving and spending that's presented through a social lens.

Digital assets as everyday money

Problem
Existing "crypto" is highly volatile, reduces trust and discourages money movement.

Solution:
By grounding everything in familiar fiat equivalents, we encouraged money movements and reduced perceived risks.

Starting off with just USD stablecoins, we slowly introduced popular tokenised stocks and Bitcoin to increase first deposits. Our goal was to separate stable, familair coins and investment from existing crypto volitality.

Impact:
By introducing familiar fiat anchoring across assets, we strengthened perceived stability and reduced risk ambiguity. This translated into real financial action.

+16%

in first deposit rate

25%

Depositors diversified

~27%

New Depositors invested

Digital assets as everyday money

Problem
Existing "crypto" is highly volatile, reduces trust and discourages money movement.

Solution:
By grounding everything in familiar fiat equivalents, we encouraged money movements and reduced perceived risks.

Starting off with just USD stablecoins, we slowly introduced popular tokenised stocks and Bitcoin to increase first deposits. Our goal was to separate stable, familair coins and investment from existing crypto volitality.

Impact:
By introducing familiar fiat anchoring across assets, we strengthened perceived stability and reduced risk ambiguity. This translated into real financial action.

+16%

in first deposit rate

25%

Depositors diversified

~27%

New Depositors invested

Deposit and withdraw easily

Problem
Many Web3 platforms require users to go through complex steps such as setting up digital wallets from external exchanges creating friction up front. Without familiar deposit and withdrawal options, users hesitate to move funds or see's the product as difficult to enter and exit.

Solution:
The experience allows passive users to deposit and withdraw through familiar channels such as bank transfers, credit cards. For more web3 savvy users, we also enabled digital wallets, still maintaining the ability to interact with blockchain assets.This bridged the gap between web3 infrastructure and everyday banking behaviour.

Impact:
By aligning deposit and withdrawal patterns with familiar fintech experiences, we reduced first deposit friction and increased user confidence in moving funds.

~39%

Active users initiated registration

~25%

Completed KYC

Deposit and withdraw easily

Problem
Many Web3 platforms require users to go through complex steps such as setting up digital wallets from external exchanges creating friction up front. Without familiar deposit and withdrawal options, users hesitate to move funds or see's the product as difficult to enter and exit.

Solution:
The experience allows passive users to deposit and withdraw through familiar channels such as bank transfers, credit cards. For more web3 savvy users, we also enabled digital wallets, still maintaining the ability to interact with blockchain assets.This bridged the gap between web3 infrastructure and everyday banking behaviour.

Impact:
By aligning deposit and withdrawal patterns with familiar fintech experiences, we reduced first deposit friction and increased user confidence in moving funds.

~39%

Active users initiated registration

~25%

Completed KYC

Grow savings faster

Problem
Traditional savings accounts often offer low interest rates, constrained by central bank policies, operating costs, and legacy banking infrastructure.

Especially in markets with limited or inefficient banking systems ,savings growth can feel slow and restricted.

Solution:
Part of Phase 2, Allowing users to earn yield on stablecoins and gives users the advantage of growing their savings faster than traditional banks.

Impact:
As of Beta, this was still in development phase as part of phase 2. We ran a smoke test to validate demand for the Growth Account before release, introducing a promotional entry point with a “Notify me” CTA to measure behavioural intent.

36%

Click through rate

24%

Opted to notify

Bridge web3 to real world spending

Problem
Without real world utility, rewards and digital assets risk feeling abstract and pointless.

Solution:
The integration of a spendable card allows users to experience rewards and stablecoins as usable money with value.

This bridged the gap between web3 infrastructure and everyday banking behaviour.

Impact:
We adopted a phased rollout approach, launching card registration and KYC first to validate demand and operational readiness before activating live spend functionality.

~39%

Active users initiated registration

~25%

Completed KYC

Reward led onboarding

Problem:
Current de-fi platforms requires deep knowledge of web3 as part of onboarding, deterring users from adopting the product.

Solution:
Early user testing allowed us to shift our goal to focus on prioritising rapid onboarding and early value realisation.

We used reward mechanics such as Lucky Draws as onboarding tools. This allowed users to experience tangible value before needing to understand stablecoins or wallets.

Technical blockchain concepts were intentionally de-emphasised early to reduce cognitive load and build confidence.

Impact:
Reward-led onboarding drove 47% of new signups and improved both deposit conversion and early retention, validating gamification as a confidence building entry point rather than a growth gimmick.

47%

Signup attribution

~66%

Lucky Draw interaction

1.4x

Higher D7 retention

Reward led onboarding

Problem:
Current de-fi platforms requires deep knowledge of web3 as part of onboarding, deterring users from adopting the product.

Solution:
Early user testing allowed us to shift our goal to focus on prioritising rapid onboarding and early value realisation.

We used reward mechanics such as Lucky Draws as onboarding tools. This allowed users to experience tangible value before needing to understand stablecoins or wallets.

Technical blockchain concepts were intentionally de-emphasised early to reduce cognitive load and build confidence.

Impact:
Reward-led onboarding drove 47% of new signups and improved both deposit conversion and early retention, validating gamification as a confidence building entry point rather than a growth gimmick.

47%

Signup attribution

~66%

Lucky Draw interaction

1.4x

Higher D7 retention

Early value realisation

Our phase 1 goal prioritised rapid onboarding and early value realisation. We used reward mechanics such as Lucky Draw and Jackpot as onboarding tools rather than growth gimmicks, allowing users to experience tangible value before needing to understand stablecoins or wallets.

Technical blockchain concepts were intentionally de-emphasised early to reduce cognitive load and build confidence.

Early value realisation

Early value realisation

Problem:
As onboarding is a deterring factor for acquiring users who aren't familiar with digital assets, therefore most people don't own any.

Solution:
Our phase 1 goal prioritised rapid onboarding and early value realisation. We used reward mechanics such as Lucky Draw and Jackpot as onboarding tools rather than growth gimmicks, allowing users to experience tangible value before needing to understand stablecoins or wallets.

Through Lucky Draws, users could instantly receive assets such as USDC, Bitcoin, or tokenised stocks, giving them real ownership of value from their first interaction with the product.

Technical blockchain concepts were intentionally de-emphasised early to reduce cognitive load and build confidence.

Onboarding tradeoffs

Onboarding tradeoffs

Early user testing reinforced the importance of building trust from the first touchpoint. To prioritise security and long-term control, we moved away from social logins, which introduce platform dependency and limit identity ownership.

Instead, we adopted email-based OTP authentication, giving us verified contact details, more reliable account recovery, and a stronger foundation for future KYC and financial communications.

Multi market adoption

Gluon was built as a multi-market product from the outset, with early Beta testing focused on the US, Australia and China.

I treated localisation as a system-level constraint, not a translation layer.

Key decisions included:

  • Building a localisation ready design system (string expansion, layout flexibility, dynamic formatting)

  • Designs were stress tested with various languages in support of future languages support

  • Adapting trust cues and micro interactions for Chinese users accustomed to mobile first financial ecosystems

Multi market adoption

Multi market adoption

Gluon was built as a multi-market product from the outset, with early Beta testing focused on the US, Australia and China.

I treated localisation as a system-level constraint, not a translation layer.

Key decisions included:

  • Building a localisation ready design system (string expansion, layout flexibility, dynamic formatting)

  • Designs were stress tested with various languages in support of future languages support

  • Adapting trust cues and micro interactions for Chinese users accustomed to mobile first financial ecosystems

Experiments for quick evolution

Experiments for quick evolution

We adopted rapid experimentation as a core principle to learn and iterate quickly. Allowing us to validate the core experience early.

Phase 1 focused on:

  • Guiding users smoothly into Web3

  • Helping users experience value of de-fi early

  • Confirming engagement through reward based entry points

Phase 2 expands the product into everyday financial utility, introducing:

  • Friend to friend payments

  • More ways to earn

  • Further account security

  • Digital wallets connection

On top of Growth savings account and the full rollout of the Tap & Spend card to bridge digital assets with real world spending.

First of it's kind

Since launching Beta 4 months ago, Gluon has successfully onboarded over 4,500 users and continues to grow as the product evolves through rapid experimentation and iterative releases.

These early results validated the core thesis: when digital assets are introduced through clear value, familiar behaviours, and real-world utility, adoption becomes significantly more natural.

4,500+

Acquired users pre launch

41%

MAU's

~29%

WAU/MAU stickiness

First of it's kind

Since launching Beta 4 months ago, Gluon has successfully onboarded over 4,500 users and continues to grow as the product evolves through rapid experimentation and iterative releases.

These early results validated the core thesis: when digital assets are introduced through clear value, familiar behaviours, and real-world utility, adoption becomes significantly more natural.

4,500+

Acquired users pre launch

41%

MAU's

~29%

WAU/MAU stickiness

First of it's kind

Since launching Beta 4 months ago, Gluon has successfully onboarded over 4,500 users and continues to grow as the product evolves through rapid experimentation and iterative releases.

These early results validated the core thesis: when digital assets are introduced through clear value, familiar behaviours, and real-world utility, adoption becomes significantly more natural.

4,500+

Acquired users pre launch

41%

Remained MAU's

~29%

WAU/MAU stickiness