Uphold, a fintech providing investors single-wallet access to cryptocurrencies, fractional U.S. equities, commodities, carbon credits and FX, last week formally announced the launch of smart limit orders.
As part of the development, Benzinga chatted with CEO JP Thieriot.
About: Depending on where you’re based, the concept of currency can take on different meanings. That’s according to Thieriot who saw the impact of strong and weak currencies, first hand.
“That ends up pretty much dictating how your citizenry fares,” he explained in a discussion on currency devaluation and his motives for getting involved in finance. “Why would anybody pay their taxes when the interest rates and penalties that would be put on them won’t keep pace with devaluation.”
Thieriot’s comments come as countries like El Salvador opt to adopt cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, as legal tender. The development would save Salvadorans money in banking, remove politics from economics, and allow the country to build a modern financial ecosystem.
In building a business that empowers emerging financial landscapes to grow, Thieriot tapped into his learnings from institutions like Hambrecht & Quist, and partnered with Halsey Minor, the founder of technology company CNET, among others, to launch Uphold.
Founded in 2014, Uphold is a digital wallet and trading platform that makes cryptocurrencies and other assets affordable and accessible for everyone. The company is a pioneer, allowing users to trade directly between supported asset classes and send any currency, to virtually anyone, anywhere.
Product: There are two sides to the business.
The first consumer-facing side collapses different accounts – bank, commodity, securities – into a convenient wallet from which users can invest and trade. There’s also lending, borrowing, spending, and sending, Thieriot notes; “there’s no reason why those things should be segregated or subject to anachronistic settlement times and 9-to-5 limitations.”
In the simplest way, Uphold works off the premise that banks are not going to be able to step into a world where millennials are interested in staking and accessing decentralized finance, or DeFi.
“These are all sort of new things that traditional financial services do not address. So, for us, it’s sort of a blank canvas.”
The company’s core product portfolio consists of automated trade through AutoPilot, the Uphold debit card through which users can pay in crypto or gold, as well as earn cashback and rewards, in addition to multi-asset fractional trading of equities and currencies.
A differentiator, Thieriot notes, is Uphold’s Anything to Anything feature which enables one-step trading capabilities.
“All of our competitors operate in the vernacular of trading pairs, a concept, right out of the gate, that’s probably great for professional traders,” he said. “The Anything to Anything concept is not only far more graspable for most people. Rather than selling Google to get dollars and then using those dollars to buy Apple, you can send somebody Apple, on your debit card.”
Recent Events: Uphold announced the launch of smart limit orders that allow users to place up to 50 limit orders, simultaneously, without having to lock in funds at the time the order is placed.
“The concept is that if you have a certain balance, you don’t need to choose one limit order, or create a hierarchy based on your balance,” Thieriot explained. “You can put out [numerous] limit orders and the first one that executes hits.”
Basically, the feature enables Uphold users optionality, or a way to get in and out at better prices without committing capital at the outset, Thieriot said.
“You have $1000 and you’re not sure what you prefer – either bitcoin at $36,000 or ethereum at $2,400 – if you put both [orders] out there, whichever hits first is first and the rest are canceled.”
Innovation Outlook: No later than the first quarter of 2022, Uphold users, across nearly all countries the company operates in, will have fractional access to over 3,500 stocks and ETFs, options, margin, and short-selling.
“Most brokers are introducing brokers that rely on clearing firms to do all the books and records. We’re omnibus, so it allows us to handle equities in essentially the same way we handle cryptos and fiat.”
This dynamic is what enabled Uphold to innovate much quicker. Adding, Uphold users, in addition to improved staking and DeFi capabilities, will also see new payments tech that enables them to send money and pay people who are not one of Uphold’s over seven million members.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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