According to a Reuters report, Australian Fintech company InfiniGold announced to launch a gold-backed digital currency on the Ethereum blockchain network. The coin would be called Perth Mint Gold Token (PGMT). Western Australia, who owns the Perth Mint, will guarantee the gold backing the cryptocurrency.
Earlier, the Perth Mint collaborated with InfiniGold in 2018 to launch GoldPass mobile app, that allows investors to trade gold using digital certificates. CEO of Perth Mint Richard Hayes said that the digitization of gold via a public ledger is a natural progression for the global commodity markets.
He added that this would promote gold as a mainstream asset, enhance its accessibility, and it would offer greater liquidity transparency and auditability of the real assets backing this type of digital token. Perth Mint Gold Token is not the first-ever digital coin backed by physical gold. Several private companies have launched cryptocurrencies that are backed by the gold reserves.
DigixGlobal, Goldmint, and Paxos are some of the companies that have launched a gold-backed digital currency. However, InfiniGold is the first company that has collaborated with government-owned mint that would back the cryptocurrency, which makes it a first sovereign gold digital coin.
