Abra, a rapidly rising crypto wealth management platform based in San Francisco, announced on Wednesday the appointment of Justin McMahan as the company’s first-ever Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.
McMahan’s appointment comes during a period of rapid growth for Abra. In the new role, McMahan will be tasked with optimizing the company’s financial performance, ensuring compliance with global accounting standards and helping direct Abra’s growth strategy in the forthcoming years.
McMahan joins Abra from Tower Research Capital, a high-frequency trading company, where he served as Managing Director and Global Treasurer.
McMahan is a veteran finance executive with more than 20 years of experience in trading, fintech, capital markets, wealth management, and asset management. Most recently, he served senior roles at Tower Research Capital.
Before working at Tower Research, McMahan was a Managing Director and Head of Operations of Treasury & Client Services at Serengeti Asset Management, an investment management company. Prior to joining Serengeti, he worked at Morgan Stanley for 13 years, where he held several roles, including Executive Director of Prime Brokerage Capital Introductions & Risk.
Bill Barhydt, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Abra, talked about the development and said: “Justin is an exceptional addition to the firm as we continue to build out and differentiate our team with accomplished professionals across digital assets, traditional finance, and wealth management. Justin’s proven track record in executing transformational financial services solutions and leading businesses through dynamic stages of their evolution will be instrumental as we expand our platform and democratize access to the crypto economy.”
Meanwhile, McMahan also commented about his appointment: “Abra has cemented itself as a dominant player in this disruptive space, and I am humbled to join this extremely talented team that provides customers with truly unique access to cryptocurrency markets.”
Enabling Customers’ Access to Digital Assets
Abra was founded in 2015, by Bill Barhydt, a former fixed-income analyst for investment bank Goldman Sachs and former director of Netscape Communications Corporation.
Abra operates a crypto wallet with a built-in crypto swap service, a cryptocurrency lending service, and a crypto staking and high yield savings service. The firm claims to serve more than 1 million users with over $1.5 billion in assets under management.
In March 2018, Abra added support for 20 new cryptocurrencies including Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar into its platform.
In September last year, as reported by Blockchain.News, Abra raised $55 million in a Series C funding led by the Stellar Development Foundation, including other investors such as GNIA, Blockchain Capital, Kingsway Capital, Tiga Investment, among others.
Abra used the funds to expand its new offerings (which include wealth management, trading, and payments) with Stellar as a blockchain back-end and democratize access to them for new customers in developing nations.
Since 2020, Abra has witnessed “tremendous” growth. The firm recorded a ten-fold increase in revenues.
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