Ronald Leung’s original, dated commentary is reproduced below. Views, invitations and product references reflect the time of publication; they are not investment advice, an offer, a guarantee of return or confirmation of current availability.
Picture a salary that never sits in a currency.
Payday in Tokyo. The yen has slipped again when the salary hits the bank account. So instead of holding it in yen, the whole amount goes into gold (tokenised gold).
Friday night, dinner. The gold pays for it.
It's not new to picture savings in gold. But being able to spend with it is.
We often face this dilemma: hold something that keeps the value but we cannot spend it. Hold something we can spend but it loses value while holding it.
Gold has the potential to remove that choice, if it can do one more thing than hold value.
Today, no form of gold settles a bill.
-> not paper gold (issued by bank) -> not gold ETF -> and not even gold bars
So the key question for tokenised gold is never about creating the token, but what it can do. Can it be used as a medium of exchange for settlement purposes beyond holding up its value (which is what existing instruments already do)?
Disclosure: Esperanza operates a tokenised gold business, including ESPG. The exchange uses described here are prospective, not services offered today.
— Let's open the statute. A new breakdown every week.