Abra Announces World’s First Global Investment App

Digital wallet and exchange service Abra has today announced the launch of the world’s first global investment app.

The opportunity means that investors in more than 155 countries can invest in traditional stocks and ETFs, in addition to 30 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies, all under one app. Early access registration will also be given.

For the initial rollout, Abra will be offering 50 investment assets, including stocks such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Netflix, commodities such as SPDR Gold Trust, ETFs including Vanguard Growth, the S&P 500, indexes such as Russell 2000, and more.

Speaking about the announcement, Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra, said: “Investing in stocks can be a daunting, complex and decidedly exclusionary activity. We are building Bitcoin-backed investing products because, for the first time, we can truly democratise access to investment opportunities at global scale.”

He went on to say that it shouldn’t matter where a person lives or how much they earn in order to make investments.

“We’re excited to allow anyone to start investing in global equity products and take control over their savings,” Barhydt continued.

Barhydt, who said the crypto market got way ahead of itself in December 2017, said last July that in the long-term he thinks Bitcoin will rise above $50,000.

As part of the early access program, those who sigh up during pre-launch will secure zero trading fees for the remainder of 2019 on stock and ETF investments.

The use of Abra’s global investment app provides investors with the opportunity to own fractions of stocks and ETFs, similar to how consumers are already able to own a fraction of a Bitcoin. By enabling this, it’s helping to open the door to new investors who may otherwise feel excluded.

Investments with the Abra platform use a model for investing that the team call Crypto Collateralised Contracts or C3s. According to Abra, these allow an investor to easily gain investment exposure to any asset through Bitcoin and smart contracts.

Not only that, but C3s allow investors to quickly and cheaply switch between the various investments and asset classes without needing to move money between the wallets or the different platforms.

Similar to stablecoins, the nature of C3s means that Abra can peg the value of anything that has a reliable price feed to Bitcoin’s value. Abra are able to make this work by hedging its side of the contract. The C3s also come with low fees with near instant settlement times.

Abra is a non-custodial wallet, so it doesn’t store, collect, or have access to users’ funds. Instead, they are stored on the Bitcoin blockchain and backed by smart contracts.