An Auckland firm's launching what is says is the first New Zealand dollar 'stablecoin' cryptocurrency.
Techemynt, a recently set up offshoot of existing digital assets company Techemy, says the new coins, called $NZDs will be backed one-for-one by actual New Zealand dollars.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency backed by a reserve asset, such as fiat currency or gold.
"The New Zealand dollar is currently the 10th most-traded currency in the world and commands immense trust globally. As a blockchain-based stablecoin, $NZDs combines the stability and value of the New Zealand Dollar with the intrinsic utility of cryptocurrency to allow arbitrage, remittance, and digital payments, while positioning the New Zealand dollar as a prominent participant in the global digital asset economy," a statement from Techemynt said.
Techemy was founded and is led by Fran Strajnar, described in his company's literature as a "a multi-disciplined entrepreneur and blockchain evangelist".
Strajnar said between the popularity of the New Zealand Dollar and the proliferation of cryptocurrency, "it was an ideal time to fill the gap in the market and lead the creation of a NZD-based stablecoin".
"After nearly a year of development, $NZDs is now first to fully execute and deliver on the promise of bringing a New Zealand Dollar stablecoin to the world. We’ve worked extensively with our top-tier partners to ensure $NZDs builds upon the best aspects of existing stablecoins while adhering to New Zealand’s legal requirements.”
He said $NZDs is backed 1:1 with physical New Zealand Dollars in a cash and cash-equivalent treasury. $NZDs will have "rigorous governance, management and transparency policies focusing on operations and compliance day-to-day".
Issued by Techemynt, $NZDs will be made directly available to customers who wish to acquire NZ$100,000 (or more) of $NZDs tokens.
$NZDs will also be made available on secondary markets starting with the NZ-based cryptocurrency exchange Dassetx.com and with plans for it to be later offered on other exchanges as well.
The company says anyone purchasing $NZDs directly from Techemynt will be required to complete customer due diligence checks in line with Techemynt’s Financial Service Provider obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terroism Act 2009 (AML/CFT) of New Zealand.
The company says users of $NZDs are likely to include forex and crypto traders, crypto funds, investors, and eventually merchants and everyday consumers.
"Techemy also envisages that $NZDs will be able to be transferred to DeFi platforms to earn yield. Currently DeFi platforms have the potential to provide participants with much higher yields compared to traditional bank accounts."
40 Comments
DeFi.
This coin is really racing against the RBNZ creating an NZD CBDC though. I think if the RBNZ gets their ass into gear and does something within 18 months, this coin is probably doomed. But if it takes them longer than that, this coin will probably get enough legs to survive in the medium term.
For some speculating with crypto assets it may make sense to keep your wealth on a stable crypto in times when the market is going down and transferring back to your NZD bank account might not be feasible or involve extra fees. Also some platforms offer higher interest rates than commercial banks for crypto and this is a way to avoid high fluctuations in value.
The use case is the word STABLE. As you know cryptocurrencies are volatile, as price is demand driven. Just like stocks, goes up and down a lot. So what do you do when you sell some of your crypto? Your intention is to wait out the market a bit, but get back in in a few weeks. Converting it back to NZD and then back to crypto is superannoying (and too much work frankly). So that's where stable coins come in. You can easily convert to a stablecoin cryptocurrency, and then back to Bitcoin.
So stable coins are just an easy way to temporary park your money.
But once NZD is in crypto you can use it for other purposes as well of course, you can lend to others (DeFi).
Yes a stablecoin is used by traders to temporarily step out of a market, re-assess before cashing out to fiat or re-investing. But that is why USDT exists and many others and there is no difference whatsoever in clearing USDT to $NZ than clearing NZDS to $NZ in terms of complexity or in terms of tax position. There is a difference if holding USDT until the $NZ/$US exchange rate moves in your favour and then converting to Fiat.
Example I have $10,000 of Bitcoin in NZD equivelent. I believe the market is overpriced and I think its going to drop. I sell by Bitcoin to this NZD staplecoin that is a cryptocurrency. Now when Bitcoin drops to the price I want to buy I simply sell this and buy Bitcoin. The only fees I'm getting is the brokerage fees which is 0.5% usually of the $ amount. That is why Tether was created for that exact purpose. Its like fund managers having cash equivalents in their bank account and trading in the same currency. The comment above explains it perfectly.
The difference? is .. ta daa.. will be a lot easier for illegal activities, illicit drugs laundering.. not to mention.. of siphoning it from the tax man.
The day, the so called US of A, sniff that all these magical out of thin air coin, being used by Crims, launderer.. ouh oh.. this is a good one: Terrorism?
It's the last day of this technology will be around as try to be normal/legit - it's becoming underground small gambler, launderer, crims & terrorism.
Let's say Big $ terror support from country A, bought the coins then release it by their operator in country B/terror target, release the coins with 'loss' but still able to be use to buy stuff eg. from your local hardware store. You all see now? - all this magical coin is without control, they hide behind 'uncontrolled technology' how romantic, but we human evolve around control/regulatory means to save us .. from our self/chaos. No screening where money comes in/out?, not allow tax man to get a cut?, no policing?, .. imagine a wild west of 'Airline industries'..no regulation.
Pusheen
you obviously have absolutely no idea of the subject at all
there is ZERO means to cheat the tax man in NZ when trading in a public blockchain token, every transaction is open to public view and in order to move funds in and out of your personal account all your details and your wallet ID are automatically transmitted to the IRD and they can track every item.
Brilliant, yep just create something out of thin air and use your actual money to buy it. Clearly its a big enough loophole to fit the whole of New Zealand through it. Speculation has got out of control, money is being sucked out of the system into non productive assets and nobody actually wants to work for a living anymore.
With counterfeiting, you're creating fiat out of nothing.
Stable coins hold (in theory) $1 in actual cash reserves for every $1 they issue. So not the same as counterfeiting.
It's not really any different than buying a gift card from a particular company. Those are legal, so there's no reason a NZD stablecoin wouldn't be.
For a financial website the lack of financial common sense in some of these comments is flabbergasting. What part of "nzd backed" token (dollar for dollar) doesn't make sense to you luddites? It is literally worth as much as the nz dollar. The only question of interest is, will there be demand for it? If it's easy to buy in nzd and widely accepted, I'll use it as a current account for my crypto purchases. But can't see exchanges piling in to setup trading pairs against it in a hurry. Especially when there's several usd tethers and exchanges own tokens like BNB. Unless I can use it to buy a wide range of tokens without having to do stepping stone trades into complimentary trade denominations it's worthless to me. The only angle I can see is if it gets treated differently for tax purposes in NZ. Then it would have a lot of utility.
Kiwi is really good at creating Ponzi, always is.. and will be, just google the past 20-30years how many of them managed to get slap in hands, whilst able to swindle millions upon millions - the New norm, of Nigerian type of scam/ponzi, a gem in the pacific, but soon will be the pain in the butt for OZ.
Strange how all these Crypto's want your Fiat money though isn't it ? Whats the issue with a direct buy of a stable coin with Bitcoin for example or visa versa ? Cryptos are a perceived value with the actual value still linked to Fiat. It would only take the top 100 owners of Bitcoin to suddenly all decide to cash out and the value would hit the floor. Pure speculation and as long as nobody blinks or starts to sweat its all good. Great fun for small amounts of cash but you wouldn't bet your house on it.
Many people above are getting mixed up between Crypto (Bitcoin, etc) and tokenisation vis a vis stablecoins.
They use the same technology, namely the blockchain, but are very different in that stablecoins are backed by the physical asset (NZD, gold, etc), whereas Crypto, such as Bitcoin is backed by nothing 'physical'.
I'm buying physical gold via Pax Gold (PAXG) and I think it revolutionary in terms of convenience: it's simply the best way for me to buy physical gold.
Totally different argument as to whether Crypto is a store of value, etc.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.