HelloTrade, a new blockchain-powered trading platform founded by former BlackRock crypto directors Wyatt Raich and Kevin Tang, announced that it has closed a $4.6M seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. The round came together in under a week, reflecting strong conviction in the size of the market opportunity and the team’s track record of building category-defining products. At BlackRock, Kevin and Wyatt launched the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF, the fastest ETF in history to reach $100B in assets.
Addressing Barriers in Capital Markets
For decades, access to the world’s capital markets and leveraged equity trading has been constrained by geography, high capital requirements, complex derivatives, and legacy brokerage systems. These barriers have made obtaining directional exposure and leverage to global equities challenging for retail and professional investors.
HelloTrade's Vision and Technology
HelloTrade aims to change that. Built on MegaETH, the platform will let users everywhere gain leveraged exposure to stocks, ETFs, commodities, and crypto. The app is designed for everyday investors with a mobile-first experience, removing the usual points of friction that come with crypto trading. There is no wallet setup, no gas payments, and no technical jargon. Users simply open the app and trade with the speed of a traditional brokerage platform, enabled by MegaETH’s ability to process more than one hundred thousand transactions per second.
“Trading stocks with leverage shouldn’t be gated by geography or account minimums,” said co-founder Kevin Tang. “We’ve now seen how crypto derivatives transformed access to digital assets. HelloTrade applies that same ethos to traditional equities, making it possible for investors around the world to participate in the world’s most dynamic markets”.
Expert Support and Founding Team's Experience
The company is supported by a strong group of advisors, including Arthur Hayes (Maelstrom), Josh Lim (FalconX), David C. (LeadBlock Partners & LeadBlock Bitpanda Ventures), Larry Florio (Ethena), and Andrew Saunders (Amazon).
“While leading the engineering team for BlackRock’s Digital Assets Lab, I had the privilege of building IBIT, ETHA, and BUIDL, some of the largest crypto asset products in the world. That experience highlighted a tremendous opportunity to bring the same trust, discipline, and institutional standards we upheld at BlackRock to the rest of the world and build something truly transformative with HelloTrade,” said co-founder Wyatt Raich, and prior head of digital assets engineering at BlackRock.
Kevin and Wyatt first crossed paths at BlackRock as foundational team members in the firm’s digital assets division. Despite their different backgrounds-Kevin as a financial services veteran with over 12 years of experience, and Wyatt coming from a career in AI and robotics at Lockheed Martin-the two shared a conviction that blockchain technology could transform capital markets and investing.
Upcoming Launch and Early Access
HelloTrade is expected to launch in the form of a mobile app across both iOS and Android. For early access, a waitlist is currently live at hello.trade.
About HelloTrade
HelloTrade is a blockchain-powered trading platform pioneering 24/7 access to stocks, commodities and other real-world assets (“RWAs”). Built by former digital asset leaders at BlackRock, HelloTrade will launch with a clear mission to grant access to global access to RWAs, superior mobile- first user experience, leverage through perpetual futures, and institutional-grade security and performance built on MegaETH for speed and Ethereum-level security.