Social investing app Invstr has announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency trading feature for all U.S.-based users. Invstr has partnered up with Vast Bank and will use the COINBASE exchange platform to handle trading. Invstr users in all 50 states are now able to buy and sell BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC with their app accounts. Minimum transactions are $5.00 to start.
The Invstr team recently raised $20 million in a Series A round and crossed the one million user mark. They are a competitor to apps like Public and Robinhood. Invstr and Public each have around one million users while the Robinhood app boasts over 13 million.
Revolution in retail investing
Elaborating on the company’s operations, Invstr founder & CEO, Kerim Derhalli said that there is a revolution going on in retail investing and that the company has “taken the best investment techniques from the rich and made them available to everyone.”
Derhalli went on to talk about how learning to become an investor is just like learning anything else. Thus, investors need to practice and hone their skills before just jumping in headfirst.
Vast Bank, the first U.S. bank to offer digital asset custody, will serve as the digital custodian for Invstr. This means that all digital funds will be looked after in a regulated U.S. bank to maximize security. Coinbase is joining up to add liquidity and expertise from one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the U.S. market.
Reducing the perceived risk
About the partnership with Coinbase and Vast Bank, Derhalli said that it will help “reduce the perceived risk of investing in cryptocurrencies and should encourage many more people to take the plunge for the first time.”
Invstr currently offers a trio of other features to help educate new or curious investors. For example, Fantasy Finance allows you to manage a $1 million virtual portfolio much like a fantasy football team allows you to manage a squad of players.
As for Robinhood, the goal for the app was, according to its founders, to open up capital markets to those who had been shut out. They have largely accomplished that goal, at least in the short term. In 2020 alone, more than three million users joined Robinhood.
