HelloTrade has raised $4.6 million in seed funding to build a new blockchain-based trading platform. Dragonfly Capital led the round. The company said the funding closed in under a week. It cited investor interest in the market and the founders’ earlier work at BlackRock, where they helped launch the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF.
Digital assets meet tradfi in London at the fmls25
The launch comes as other crypto platforms explore new ways to offer equity-linked products. Bitget and Kraken now provide “always-on” tokenized U.S. equities, including Apple, Tesla, and the S&P 500. These tokens clear on-chain within seconds and trade 24/5. They do not require a traditional brokerage account. Critics argue they resemble CFDs rather than real shares.
MEXC has also rolled out USDT-settled stock futures with up to 5× leverage. The exchange said the contracts give users exposure to U.S. equities without a standard brokerage setup.
Platform Offers Leveraged Trading for Retail
HelloTrade’s founders said access to global markets has long been limited by geography, high capital requirements, and old brokerage systems. They added that these limits affect both retail and professional users seeking leveraged or directional exposure to equities. The company aims to address these issues through a mobile-first product that removes several steps that are common in crypto trading.
- Retail Investors in Singapore Embrace Crypto as 61% Report Holding Digital Assets: Coinbase
- Obama and Bezos Among Targets as Twitter Hacker Jailed in US to Return £4m in Bitcoin to UK
- Institutions in Asia Can Now Trade Crypto Perpetual Futures on SGX’s Cleared Exchange
Kevin Tang said “trading stocks with leverage shouldn’t be gated by geography or account minimums.” He added that crypto derivatives reshaped access to digital assets and that the company wants to apply “the same ethos” to traditional markets.
The advisor group includes Arthur Hayes, Josh Lim, David C., Larry Florio, and Andrew Saunders. HelloTrade said their experience will support the platform’s development.
Founders Apply BlackRock Experience to Design
The platform runs on MegaETH. It will offer leveraged exposure to equities, ETFs, commodities, and crypto. The company said there is no wallet setup, no gas payments , and no technical language. Trades can be placed at a speed similar to traditional brokers. HelloTrade said MegaETH enables this by processing more than one hundred thousand transactions per second.
Wyatt Raich said his time at BlackRock showed the scale of global demand for secure and well-managed digital asset products. He said working on IBIT, ETHA, and BUIDL highlighted an opportunity to bring similar standards to a wider user base. He said this approach shapes HelloTrade’s design.
