Abra, a bitcoin and crypto wallet app, today announced early access registration toward the opportunity for investors in over 155 countries to invest in traditional stocks and ETFs, alongside more than 30 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies, all within the Abra app.
Investments in the Abra platform use a new model for investing that it calls Crypto Collateralized Contracts or C3s. C3s allow an investor to easily gain investment exposure to any asset (such as a stock, bond, another cryptocurrency, etc.) by using bitcoin and smart contracts as the underlying technology for the investment.
C3s enable investors to quickly and cheaply switch between different kinds of investments and asset classes without having to move money between wallets or across various platforms.
The programmable nature of C3s means that Abra can peg the value of anything with a reliable price feed to the value of bitcoin. So in this way, C3s are like stablecoins. Abra makes this work by hedging its side of the contract so that any user can be made fully whole on their investment at any time regardless of the market direction.
The net effect of the C3 model is that Abra can offer to invest with low fees in fractional share increments with near instantaneous settlement times.
“Investing in stocks can be a daunting, complex and decidedly exclusionary activity,” said Bill Barhydt, chief executive officer of Abra. “We are building Bitcoin-backed investing products because, for the first time, we can truly democratize access to investment opportunities at global scale. It shouldn’t matter where you live or how much you earn to be able to make investments and participate in capital markets. We’re excited to allow anyone to start investing in global equity products and take control over their savings.”
