Kevin Tang and Wyatt Raich worked in digital assets at BlackRock, where they helped the company grow from its strong crypto skepticism to becoming one of Wall Street’s leading players in the sector. At that time, they came to believe that it was too difficult for foreigners to participate in common investment opportunities like buying U.S. stocks. That’s why they co-founded HelloTrade, a mobile-first, blockchain-based trading platform.
The company announced Thursday that it has raised $4.6 million in a seed round from Dragonfly Capital, with support from Mirana Ventures and angel investors.
“We see a huge market opportunity to make these traditional assets like stocks and commodities accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection,” said Tang, co-founder and CEO of HelloTrade, in an interview with Fortune. “We believe the next frontier of blockchain adoption will be the movement of these traditional on-chain markets.”
HelloTrade aims to give investors around the world access to US assets. For example, Vietnamese or Indonesians may want to buy Tesla stock. But thanks to their current brokerage systems, these are not easily accessible. By using cryptographic technology, HelloTrade plans to solve this problem. The platform also offers perpetual futures contracts, which provide clients with greater exposure to an asset than they would have in cash on the platform.
HelloTrade’s value proposition is similar to trading platforms like Robinhood and Revolut. Tang says these companies can be cumbersome and difficult to use, and that HelloTrade will focus on creating a better user interface.
The startup’s product hasn’t launched yet, but Tang said he expects it to launch late this year or early next year. The company currently has around ten employees.
At BlackRock, Tang and Raich, co-founder and CTO of HelloTrade, helped develop the company’s crypto offerings. Tang worked as a senior director of its digital assets team and Raich was responsible for engineering its digital assets lab. During his tenure, the company launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) ETFs, funds that both had record debuts on the stock market and were among the first crypto ETFs to launch.
HelloTrade’s two co-founders aren’t the only ones bringing their inherited financial talents to the crypto world. In a report last month, the crypto arm of famed venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz found that workers getting into crypto tend to come from a traditional financial background. This mix of Wall Street and crypto coincides with President Donald Trump’s favorable policies towards the sector. Since last year’s election, major banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have been expanding their blockchain technology.
Tang and Raich have often heard a saying at BlackRock: You spend decades building trust, and you can lose it in minutes. It’s a philosophy they’ve brought to HelloTrade, which is why they plan to spend their new capital in part to educate individuals around the world about the benefits of blockchain technology and to invest in the safety and security of their product.
