Roboadvisor Betterment Launches Crypto Offering With Four Theme Portfolios • TechCrunch

Betterment, a roboadvisory platform that manages over $33 billion in assets, has finally launched its crypto offering after completing a private beta phase. The fintech acquired Makara, a crypto asset management startup, back in February and has been working to transform Makara into its own in-house crypto product since the deal closed.

Crypto for Betterment, as the new offering is called, debuts to Betterment’s 730,000+ clients today with four thematic, customizable portfolios that will allow users to invest in curated selections of digital assets, the company’s VP of crypto, Jesse Proudman, told TechCrunch in an interview.

According to Proudman, the four portfolios launched today include approximately 25 different cryptocurrencies each and categorized as follows:

• “Universe“, which claims to offer broad exposure across the crypto landscape and includes coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink and Filecoin
• “Sustainable“, which focuses on green blockchains including Ethereum, which recently transitioned to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism, and other PoS chains such as Solana and Tezos
• “Metaverse,” consists of assets involved in immersive online experiences such as gaming and digital commerce, such as tokens used in Decentraland and Sandbox
• “Decentralized finance“, which contains tokens native to DeFi protocols including Aave, Uniswap and Compound

Proudman noted that the offering will include a feature that guides users to limit their crypto exposure to 5% of their investable assets as a hedge.

“A fairly significant number of our customers are either interested or already invested [in crypto], but they are feeling pressure with the do-it-yourself nature, especially when you couple that with the speed of change happening in this asset class. So they gave feedback that this kind of managed, curated offering was of interest to them, Proudman said.

Makara, which is registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, launched with 20,000 customers and $1 million in assets under management last June, according to Decrypt.

Betterment announced last month that it would partner with crypto exchange Gemini, managed by the Winklevoss twins, to develop the crypto portfolios and act as a custodian for the assets. The company’s last publicly known fundraising was a $160 million round announced last September, which it raised at a $1.3 billion valuation.

The company has been relatively slow compared to other investment platforms like Robinhood and Acorns to add crypto to its suite, perhaps in part because it wants to focus on messaging around the importance of long-term investing, especially as crypto markets continue to prove volatile. . Betterment’s launch comes just a week after investment app Stash announced its own crypto offering informed by an anti-trading, long-term ethos that contrasts with the short-term trading mentality often associated with Robinhood’s rise.