eToro has launched its latest portfolio, which offers investors the opportunity to take a stake ($2,000 minimum) in the companies involved in Facebook’s Libra project. Comprising of the 13 publicly-traded companies involved in the Libra Association, the portfolio will add more firms as they join the project and rebalance it where possible.
Yoni Assia, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of eToro, commented: “The Facebook Libra project presents a seismic shift for global finance as it is the first time we are seeing a tech giant make a move into finance using crypto. We want to give people the opportunity to take a stake in it as in the past, only the private companies and individuals involved in these historic developments have benefitted from them. We want to change that. eToro’s mission is to open up global markets for everyone and is the only place retail investors can get exposure to developing technologies such as the Libra Coin, via a managed and regulated investment product for free.”
The 13 publicly-traded companies involved in the Libra Association which are part of eToro’s portfolio are: Mastercard (MA); Paypal (PYPL); VISA (V); Booking Holdings INC (BKNG); eBay (EBAY); Lyft (LYFT); MercadoLibre (MELI); Spotify (SPOT); Uber (UBER); Facebook (FB); Iliad (ILD.PA); Vodafone (VOD) and Farfetch (FTCH). Facebook has enlisted 14 other companies and organizations to form the association, which is based out of Switzerland.
These companies span the financial services and retail industry and include payment systems and technology giants. Facebook hopes to have recruited over 100 firms into the Libra Association before the launch in early 2020.
Yoni Assia added: “Our range of portfolios are about making it as easy as possible for investors to access the assets they want across a range of themes and ideas that they’re passionate about. That could be anything from renewable energy to big tech, from cybersecurity to the medical cannabis industry. Given the importance of the Libra project, this portfolio was devised just two weeks after the project’s whitepaper was made public.”
Democrats from the State of California have expressed that Libra and Caliba – its proposed digital wallet – which are intended to rival U.S. monetary policy and the dollar, may raise “serious privacy,
trading, national security, and monetary policy concerns for not only Facebook’s over 2 billion users, but also for investors, consumers, and the broader global economy.”
