Makara, a leading SEC-registered cryptocurrency robo-advisor, this week announced the launch of its service and mobile app in the App Store. Following itsinitial announcement, Makara has seen demand for the service exceed more than 20,000 waitlist sign-ups.
Makara aims to make investing in cryptocurrencies more accessible for everyone through index-like allocations called baskets. Powered by investment technology that’s been purpose-built for cryptocurrency and tested over the past three and a half years, Makara provides clients with an intuitive and familiar experience.
“We believe Makara is solving real and existing obstacles for individuals accessing the cryptocurrency market. Seeing the initial interest from our waitlist gives us confidence that our thesis is correct,” said Jesse Proudman, cofounder and CEO of Makara. “This is still a retail-led asset class and we believe Makara can empower every investor to learn more and benefit from all the potential that cryptocurrencies offer.”
Makara already has millions of dollars in assets under management as beta clients are currently being added to the platform. The waitlist will remain open for the next couple of weeks while Makara onboards all clients from its waitlist onto the platform.
“Traditional robo-advisors help their users invest in ETFs but obviously there aren’t any crypto ETFs in the U.S. right now. And, if there were, investors would only be able to move in and out during traditional market hours. Not only that, but they wouldn’t actually be holding these assets directly,” Proudman continued. “At Makara, we believe investors deserve more than aWall Street wrapper around cryptocurrency. We believe investors deserve true access and exposure to crypto whenever crypto markets are open, which is why our thematic baskets are so compelling.”
Makara’s unique, thematic baskets allow clients to streamline the crypto investment experience. Clients are able to gain broad exposure to a curated set of strategies based on their interests and goals. The technology handles the buying, selling, and storing of the underlying assets throughGemini, its trading and custody partner, so clients can have confidence that they’re optimized for the type of exposure they want. Makara currently offers the following investment baskets:
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Basket: Equal-weighted allocations to cryptocurrencies that drive this emerging trend.
Inflation Hedge Basket: Equal-weighted allocations to historical and future state stores-of-value: tokenized gold and Bitcoin.
Universe: Risk-weighted exposure to the entire investable universe of assets on the Makara platform.
Blue Chip Basket: Weighted basket of the largest cryptocurrencies with more than $10B in market cap.
Bitcoin Basket: Single asset basket for investors who want access to the industry’s largest asset and the most established cryptocurrency.
Ethereum Basket: Single asset basket for investors who want access to the second largest asset and the leading distributed computing platform.
Additionally, Makara offers investors a plethora of educational resources aimed at everyone from newcomers to those who simply want a deeper understanding of these assets. This self-serve content about cryptocurrencies and the industry has already proven invaluable to beta users.
“Investors shouldn’t have to spend hours researching and tracking the market to demystify the asset class,” said Sadie Raney, Makara cofounder. “We believe investors should understand what they’re investing in, which is why education is a huge component of Makara. We want our clients to feel like they’re learning new things every day as part of their investing experience.”
Makara is now open to U.S. residents ages 18 and older. Waitlist participants will be the first investors invited to register for Makara and will also automatically have the first six months of their Makara fees waived.
Makara’s mobile app is now available in the App Store. Android availability is expected in the next couple of weeks.
