Abra, the world’s first global investment app, announced the general availability of an industry first — the opportunity for investors in the Philippines and international countries to invest in traditional stocks and ETFs using Bitcoin. This product announcement is the next step in Abra’s vision to use Bitcoin’s programmable money features to create and democratize new financial products and services for users across the globe.

“Investing in financial markets is a basic tool to build personal wealth. Yet outside of the United States, most of the world’s population is not invested in financial assets or markets due to issues of access and affordability,” said Bill Barhydt, CEO and founder of Abra. “Abra is addressing this global inequality by allowing more people to have a stake in financial markets. The focus of this launch is to make financial markets of the developed world more accessible and affordable to those in emerging economies.”