Digital money platform Uphold, which serves over five million customers in over 150 countries across the globe, has recently announced its acquisition of US broker dealer, JNK Securities. It is set to become one of the first ever crypto companies to have acquired a broker dealer which has been approved in the US to supply its retail investors with equities on an omnibus basis. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has approved this acquisition.
Later this year, Uphold is planning to introduce fractional equities in the US, in the hope of also pioneering streamlined trading between US stocks, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, FX products, carbon credits and other assets. Uphold will aim to execute this all through one individual interface.
Bitcoin to Tesla stock in one seamless user experience will soon become a reality for our U.S. customers. The move will introduce unprecedented speed and convenience for retail investors seeking to trade between traditional and emerging asset classes.
This acquisition is set to deliver Uphold the practical means to market its already established cryptocurrency investment fund, Digital Asset Alpha. The investment fund will now be marketed towards hedge funds, the original target client base for JNK Securities. Digital Asset Alpha works to take non-directional wagers on how cryptocurrency might capture arbitrage and then yield prospects in DeFi and derivatives.
Uphold also expects to increase its equities offering vastly later on in the year, moving from 50 US stocks all the way up to 3,500 options and stocks. Away from the US, Uphold has been known to be one of the only platforms in the world which allows fractional US equities trading on a 24/7 schedule.
JP Thieriot added:
We’re also proud to open up equities trading to wider participation in the United States where almost half of U.S. households still don’t have any exposure to the stock market[1]. Our fractional equities offering will render even the most expensive equities accessible and affordable to ordinary people: a brokerage account can be opened in less than three minutes and there’s no minimum investment: you can buy as little as $1 worth of Alphabet A (Google stock), for example, while a whole share trades around $2,000.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
