Abra Banks on Crypto

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Abra, a crypto finance company with an all-in-one global cryptocurrency wallet and exchange, today launched a new campaign that gives $25 of free crypto for new Abra wallet activations.

The goal of giving away free crypto is to help raise awareness about the investment opportunities in this new form of finance and to expand cryptocurrency adoption and education among retail investors.

Bitcoin just turned ten. But, according to a recent study, fewer than 10% of Americans have invested in cryptocurrencies. Most people say they are disinterested or that they don't really see the need for crypto. The study also found that many people find crypto difficult to understand.

Abra is on a mission to change that perception of cryptocurrencies by removing the need to understand the complexities of the technology. The Abra app itself provides a clean user experience for simple crypto investing. The goal of the $25 crypto campaign is to give people a chance to learn risk-free about crypto.

"Most consumers look at cryptocurrencies as a get rich quick scheme that is complicated, volatile and confusing," said Bill Barhydt, Abra CEO and founder. "Abra is changing that with the first and only all-in-one cryptocurrency wallet and exchange aimed at retail investors. By making crypto simple, Abra is paving the way for the use of cryptocurrencies within future innovative financial products, like global micro-investing, payments, and index products such as our new crypto-backed index, BIT10. The end result is that people will be more in control of their money and everyone, everywhere in the world will have access to fundamental financial products."

The problems crypto solves and a new financial future
With crypto's market cap down more than 70% since the beginning of the year, there is a high degree of interest in learning more about what problem cryptocurrencies actually solve beyond being a vehicle for crypto speculation.

Cryptocurrencies will enable programmable money to act more like the data that it is, and flow freely across the internet instead of being controlled by gatekeepers. That means that economic opportunity will no longer be stymied by geography, high fees, or accredited investor status. Instead, markets will finally be able to operate as they were always intended: they will be free and openly accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Crypto as programmable money will drive the next wave of financial innovation in retail banking by giving consumers control and choice. For consumers in developing economies, cryptocurrencies represent a massive "leapfrog" style step towards an accessible financial system. Investing via crypto-backed assets represents a huge leap forward in providing global investors access, choice and flexibility.

There will likely be many unforeseen benefits of this new style of crypto-enabled economic freedom. In the near term, Abra is already working on an exciting suite of mashup investment products.

"Cryptocurrency and fiat currency investing are the first asset classes that we choose to enable via these bitcoin-collateralized contracts. Eventually, you are going to see equities, commodities, mutual funds — and even mashups of all of them. We launched the BIT10 index token which represents a mashup of the price feeds of different tokens into one bitcoin-collateralized contract," Barhydt said. "That just sets the stage for showing people that we can mashup any asset classes into one investment token via this model."

Abra's Mission: Provide global access to financial services with programmable money
Abra's vision is to provide access to financial services that are otherwise difficult or impossible to access and ultimately drive greater financial inclusion. Using cryptocurrency as the new protocol for money, Abra is paving the way for the use of innovative and easy to use decentralized financial products by everyday consumers. Today Abra wallet users can:

• Invest. Abra's smart contract-based investment platform allows its users to have fractional ownership over many asset types. Today Abra users can buy, sell and hold over 28 cryptocurrencies, 50 fiat currencies and the new BIT10, the world's first easily accessible crypto index.

• Pay. Frictionless and fee-free, Abra's peer-to-peer capability allows users to instantly send and receive money (fiat or cryptocurrencies) to anyone, anywhere in the world.

• Be the bank.  Abra is based on a non-custodial wallet architecture, which means it doesn't control or have access to users' funds which are held directly by the consumer. Instead, they are secured on the blockchain and are fully recoverable via a user's unique recovery phrase.

"Our mission is to provide democratized access to financial services for the global consumer. That's it. Investing is one of those core capabilities, credit is another, and payment and money transfer it the third," said Barhydt.

Open an Abra wallet, get $25 of free crypto
Abra is the simplest and most secure way to build a crypto investing portfolio and is available to everyone, everywhere in the world. All that's required to set up a unique and secure wallet is an iPhone or Android phone. Starting today, new Abra users can become eligible for $25 in free crypto to try the app and start investing. Getting started is easy. To qualify:

1. Download the Abra app using this promotional link.
2. Set up your wallet and buy a minimum of $5 crypto using a U.S.-based bank account or an American Express card to get $25 bitcoin. Or get 1.5% cash back (up to $25) when you deposit bitcoin, bitcoin cash, or litecoin and exchange it to any other crypto asset.
3. Get your free crypto after completing the above steps within 10 days.

Offer expires December 31, 2018. Terms and conditions apply.

About Abra

Abra is the first and only all-in-one global app offering a true crypto exchange and digital wallet  —- making cryptocurrency investing simple. Abra empowers users to buy and hold 28 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies on a single app. Exchanges between multiple cryptocurrencies or fiat are quick, easy, and secure. Plus, with the Abra app, consumers can manage all crypto investments on one screen. Abra was founded in 2014 by Bill Barhydt, a veteran in the cryptocurrency space and an early Netscape employee. Investors include American Express Ventures, First Round Capital, HCM of Foxconn Group, Arbor Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, RRE Ventures, Silver8 Capital and others.

SOURCE Abra