Blockchain real estate platform Propy has partnered with Abra to allow customers to obtain home loans using their cryptocurrency holdings, potentially widening the financial use cases of digital assets. Propy customers can now put up digital assets as collateral for their real estate purchases through Abra Borrow, a cryptocurrency lending and borrowing service. Crypto collateral pledged on Abra is used to borrow United States dollars that can then be applied to home purchases. The Propy blockchain records the entire transaction process, serving as the technical and legal framework for buyers and sellers. According to Propy, the blockchain records the transaction …

Cryptocurrency trading platform Abra has raised $55 million in funding to bootstrap the next phase of its growth strategy, bringing several high-profile investors on board from both inside and outside the blockchain industry. Abra will use funds from the Series C investment to grow its product offerings in wealth management, trading and payments, as well as expand its in-house capacity, the company announced Wednesday. Amex Ventures, a venture capital arm of American Express, was among the contributors alongside Blockchain Capital, Ignia, Kingsway Capital and Stellar Development Foundation. Abra has now raised over $85 million since its inception. Bill Barhydt, Abra's …

A federal judge has implied that an individual may not have the right to force the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, to expunge financial records it obtains from crypto exchanges. In granting a motion to dismiss filed in December, Judge Joseph DiClerico in the District of New Hampshire suggested the Internal Revenue Service has no obligation to honor requests to purge crypto transaction records it received from Coinbase or other exchanges regarding information for federal taxes. Dismissed in part for lack of jurisdiction, the civil rights case filed by plaintiff James Harper against IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, the agency, and …

The co-founder and CEO of major cryptocurrency company Abra is clearly bullish on Bitcoin (BTC). In an Oct. 23 tweet, Bill Barhydt, CEO of peer-to-peer payments platform Abra, claimed that he has significantly increased his Bitcoin holdings a few weeks ago. According to the CEO, Bitcoin now accounts for 50% of his total investment portfolio. Barhydt talked about his holdings on an episode of Money Talks. In an Oct. 23 YouTube live stream, Barhydt reiterated his bullish stance on Bitcoin, claiming that “Bitcoin is the single best investment opportunity in the world right now.” The executive said that Bitcoin’s scarcity …

The co-founder and CEO of one of the best-known Bitcoin (BTC) companies has revealed he is at his most bullish on the largest cryptocurrency in five years. In a series of tweets on Oct. 6, Bill Barhydt, the CEO of payments gateway Abra, highlighted a large number of indicators suggesting incoming BTC price gains. “I’ve never been this excited about the potential of #Bitcoin for significant price appreciation in the short term (less than 18 month time frame.),” he summarized. Bitcoin has spent the past few weeks in a consolidatory pattern after hitting highs of $12,500. While short-term price prospects …

Back in July, the Securities and Exchange Commission alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined investment app Abra for providing trading on synthetic assets. At the time, that looked like the end of the matter. However, in response to Cointelegraph’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for details in the Abra case, the SEC cited FOIA exemption 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7)(A) — an exemption that only applies to ongoing investigations. The exemption applies to situations where releasing information could “reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” The SEC’s response does not provide details into the ongoing investigation, and was careful …

Most days, there is little love lost between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the world of crypto. As the regulator of the world’s largest capital market, the commission’s continuing work to track down sales for tokens it considers unregistered securities has left a fair bit of the crypto market viewing the commission like a boogeyman. Which is not fair. There are controversial cases, but the ICO boom was rampant with predation, fraud and theft: Exactly the sort of issues you keep a regulator around to stamp out. Right now, though, the SEC is faced with a wide …

The U.S. government's attempts to fix the current economic situation could ultimately lead to greater Bitcoin (BTC) adoption, according to Bill Barhydt, CEO of crypto wallet and exchange solution, Abra. "I think that this is a pivotal moment for Bitcoin as a new asset class," Barhydt told Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano during an Aug. 13 podcast interview. Barhydt noted the U.S. government's goals for intentional inflation as rationale for his thesis. As part of the rationale for his claims, Barhdyt mentioned rumors of the U.S. government's upcoming goal of 4% inflation — unheard of territory when it comes …

Bill Barhydt, CEO and founder of the Abra digital finance wallet and exchange app, said he sees Bitcoin’s (BTC) blockchain struggling when it comes to on-chain mass adoption of the asset as a store of value, given the asset’s current technology. “Bitcoin can certainly scale ‘off-chain’ today via third-party custodians such as exchanges and wallets like Abra or other so-called second-layer technologies such as Lightning,” Barhydt told Cointelegraph on July 15. He added: “When held in that manner Bitcoin’s scalability is probably limitless. However, Bitcoin doesn’t yet have the scalability it needs to be held by billions of people as …

Abra, the company behind the global crypto and fiat wallet and exchange app of the same name, plans to give the world banking services underpinned by Stellar's blockchain — one of the results of the SDF's $5 million investment in Abra earlier in 2020. During the SDF's digital second quarter review meeting on July 15, Abra CEO Bill Barhydt mentioned Abra's focus on upcoming banking-type features the company is building out. In particular, Barhydt noted an "interest-earning capability" expected to hit the market in the coming weeks. Abra details upcoming features and capabilities "This allows consumers, for example, people who …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note New developments in crypto this week are challenging a number of critical boundaries of legal authority. We are, consequently, looking at several cases that promise to set new lines for government reach and overreach. Cassius lamented Caesar bestriding the narrow world like a colossus. While nothing on the docket today is going to be as dramatic as the death of the Roman Republic, we did actually see a pretty eerie yet oddly comical dress rehearsal for bad actors masquerading …

After changing roles several times since its 2009 launch, the current line on Bitcoin (BTC) calls it a store of value comparable to gold — a status with which Abra CEO Bill Barhydt agrees. "Today Bitcoin is best used as a store of value that will become more and more uncorrelated to traditional investing markets over time," Barhydt told Cointelegraph. Bitcoin's role transformation since inception Following Bitcoin's on-chain beginnings in 2009, the asset traversed a staggering price growth journey, going from less than $1 all the way up to nearly $20,000 at its 2017 peak. Along with this price journey …