Abra is a financial services and technology company that operates a
cryptocurrency wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often al ...
service including a trading service for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, a service for earning interest on cryptocurrencies and
stablecoins, and a lending services for borrowing against cryptocurrency collateral.
History
Abra was founded in 2014 in the
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
by Bill Barhydt, a former
fixed income analyst for
Goldman Sachs and former director of
Netscape.
Abra operates a cryptocurrency wallet with a
built-in crypto swap service called Abra Trade, a crypto lending service called Abra Borrow, and a crypto staking service called Abra Earn.
In March 2018, Abra added support for 20 new cryptocurrencies including
Litecoin,
Bitcoin Cash and
Stellar.
In September 2021 Abra announced that it had raised an additional $55M in Series C funding bringing its total raised to date to over $85M. Investors in the financing included American Express Ventures,
Blockchain Capital, Kingsway Capital and CMT Digital Ventures.
Abra and Barhydt started the
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
series Money Talks. Interviews have included
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
founder
Vitalik Buterin
Vitaly "Vitalik" Buterin (born 1994) is a Russian-Canadian computer programmer and founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding ''Bitcoin Magazine'' in 2011. In 2014, Buterin deployed Eth ...
,
MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin supporter
Michael Saylor,
Bitcoin Cash supporter
Roger Ver
Roger Keith Ver (born 27 January 1979) is an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin. Ver has sometimes been referred to as "Bitcoin Jesus". He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash as Ver sees it as fu ...
,
Zcash creator
Zooko Wilcox,
Bitwise CEO
Hunter Horsley, and venture capitalists
Tim and
Adam Draper.
In June 2018, Abra was listed in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' as one of the "Top 25 Tech Companies to Watch in 2018".
In 2021 Forbes named Abra one of its next Billion-Dollar Startups.
See also
*
Cryptocurrency exchange
*
Cryptocurrency wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often al ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
American companies established in 2014
Companies based in Mountain View, California
Bitcoin exchanges