Already known for its decentralized finance service (DeFi), Swiss crypto-bank SEBA, licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), is launching a token backed by physical gold, the Gold Token. The aim is to offer digital ownership of physical gold while benefiting from its store of value.
The Gold Token, the digital ownership of gold
On its website, the Swiss crypto-bank SEBA announced the launch of a Gold Token, a regulated product, to offer digital ownership of physical gold.
This token allows you to benefit from several things:
- Investing in physical gold in a decentralized manner;
- A regulated token that offers a secure settlement of transactions and exchanges;
- A token that allows investors to buy back their physical gold on demand and at any time from partner refineries.
The objective of this new service is to benefit from the reserve of value that gold promises and to use this token as a stablecoin. Indeed, the latter can be a counterparty for institutional investors who are looking for stability to protect themselves from the volatility of traditional markets and crypto-currencies.
“Gold plays a major role in the financial markets. With a market capitalization of over $11 trillion, it provides investors with a reliable hedge against inflation and a store of value regardless of economic turmoil. With the launch of our innovative Gold Token, we aim to enable investors to own a fully regulated digital form of physical gold for the first time. Physically redeemable directly from refineries on demand at any time,”
Guido Buehler, CEO of SEBA Bank.
The initiative was developed in partnership with Argor-Heraeus, a precious metals supplier, and aXecras, a blockchain-based precious metals platform. On this collaboration, Christoph Wild CEO of Argor-Heraeus added:
“We are delighted to be part of this project which aims to provide investors with an innovative solution, bringing together the benefits of digital and physical assets. The ability to back tokens with physical gold, responsibly sourced, undoubtedly represents a new way for investors to access the precious metals sector.”
An innovative bank in cryptocurrencies
The bank was launched 2018 and is licensed with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
It is important to note that the Swiss crypto-bank is not at its first attempt in the cryptocurrency sector. In fact, SEBA offers its clients access to cryptocurrency trading and custody services.
Initially its service offered support for six assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumen (XLM), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and the stablecoin USDC.
However, in May 2021, it announced it was expanding its offering to decentralized finance (DeFi) via three new tokens: the UNI, SNX and YFI.
Its service responds to a growing demand from institutional investors who want exposure to DeFi’s flagship tokens. That’s why it recently added the AAVE and LINK tokens to its DeFi service.
