Kevin Tang and Wyatt Raich used to work in digital assets at BlackRock, where they helped the company pivot from its loud skepticism of crypto to being one of Wall Street’s major players in the sector. During this time, they came to feel it was too difficult for people overseas to participate in common investment opportunities like purchasing U.S. stocks. That’s why they co-founded HelloTrade, a mobile-first, blockchain-powered trading platform.
The company announced on Thursday that it raised $4.6 million in a first round of funding from Dragonfly Capital, with backing from Mirana Ventures, along with angel investors.
“We see a huge market opportunity to make these traditional assets such as stocks and commodities accessible to anyone around the world with an internet connection,” Tang, co-founder and CEO of HelloTrade, said in an interview with Fortune. “We believe that the next frontier of blockchain adoption will be the movement of these traditional markets on chain.”
HelloTrade aims to give investors around the world access to U.S. assets. For example, people in Vietnam or Indonesia may want to buy Tesla stock. But through their current brokerage systems, those aren’t easily accessible. By using crypto technology, HelloTrade plans to solve that problem. The platform also offers perpetual futures, which give customers more exposure to an asset than they would have in cash on the platform.
