Crypto Digital Wallet Abra Launches Stock and ETF Investing for International Users

Abra users outside of the US can now fractionally invest in stocks and ETF products using Bitcoin, the company announced on Wednesday.

Bill Barhydt, CEO and founder of digital wallet and exchange services provider Abra, said the new product is targeted at users who would otherwise not have access to US financial markets, enabling them to build personal wealth affordably and in a convenient manner.

“The focus of this launch is to make financial markets of the developed world more accessible and affordable to those in emerging economies,” he said.

Through the Abra app, international users can now start investing with as little as US$5 per investment through a fractionalized investment model. The platform currently supports more than 50 stock and ETF products including indexes such as Vanguard Growth and S&P 500, commodities like SPDR Gold Trust and oil, international markets including Asia, Australia, Mexico, and Emerging Markets index funds, and popular stocks such as Tesla, Uber, Apple, Amazon, Google and Netflix.

Abra announced the investing offering earlier this year. Barhydt stated in a blog post that the company would begin with US products before adding more global assets in the following months.

“Many consumers in the US and other countries already have access to stocks and mutual funds via online brokerages,” he wrote in a post in February.

According to Willie Wang, vice president of product at Abra, tens of thousands of investors from around the globe had signed up for the waitlist.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in California, Plutus Financial, Inc., doing business as Abra, operates a mobile-based app that allows users to buy, sell, store and invest in cryptocurrencies. The platform is based on a non-custodial architecture, meaning that Abra doesn’t control or have access to users’ funds. Instead, Abra uses Bitcoin and its blockchain technology to store and encrypt cash deposits on the user’s mobile device.

As a special promotion for the launch of the investing product, Abra is offering zero trading fees for the rest of 2019 on stock and ETF investments.