Gold Miners Betting On Digital Gold Market As Tradewind Raises $10.6 Million

By Kitco News / April 25, 2018 / www.kitco.com / Article Link

(Kitco News) - Four major gold producers are betting that a new digitalgold market will bring millennials to the table and revitalize the marketplace.

On Wednesday, new fintech startup Tradewind announcedthat it raised $10.6 million in a strategic placement. The investment was ledby Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM, TSX: AEM),IAMGOLD (TSX: IMG, NYSE: IAG) and Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM, TSX:WPM). At the same time, existing stakeholders Sprott Inc. (TSX: SII). and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG, TSX: G) increased their investment in the company. Silicon-Valley-basedventure capital firm Sapphire Ventures also became a new investor in Tradewind.

“Thisstrategic placement, led by producers, reflects the rapidly evolving landscapefor trading precious metals and demonstrates growing support for the Tradewindplatform as the leading solution for the industry,” said Fraser Buchan,co-founder of Tradewind in an interview with Kitco News. “We’re excited to workwith our shareholders and partners to continue driving innovation and positivechange.”

MatthewTrudeau, president, and co-founder of Tradewind said that the demographicswithin the gold sector are changing and a digital platform that allowsinvestors to buy fractional quantities of gold will allow companies to reachuntapped potential, specifically millennials.

“Everyonethinks millennials don’t have any money, but that isn’t accurate,” saidTrudeau, “We are sitting on the cusp of the biggest transfer of wealth inhistory.”

Fraseradded that through Tradewind’s new platform the gold sector will be able toattract younger investors that are looking for important diversification fromvolatile markets like cryptocurrencies.

“Thisis the world we now live in. This the way companies have to engage withpotential investors,” he said. “At some point, all these young investors willstart to see the value of holding an asset like gold.”

Althoughthe platform is relatively new, Fraser and Trudeau said that they expect to seethe market and network continue to grow; they explained that the pipeline ofpotential new liquidity providers looks “particularly strong” as up to 20gold-sector companies have shown an interest in the technology.

The Tradewind blockchain platform, called VaultChaindirectly connects consumers and investors with precious-metals producers,custodians, market makers, dealers. The physical gold traded on the platform isstored in vaults within the Royal Canadian Mint.

Whilethe company is focused on digitizing gold, the team has its eyes on the horizonas they say the technology can be used for all markets, particularly otherprecious metals like silver and platinum group metals. Fraser noted that theplatform could also be adapted for base metals and other commodities.

AlthoughTradewind has the most advanced digital platform in the gold market, there isgrowing competition on the horizon. However, Fraser said that this just provesthat his company is on the right track.

Thecompany has spent almost three years developing the technology behind itsplatform and making the connections among key market producers and dealers, thetwo founders explained.

“Youcan’t just tokenize gold,” said Trudeau.

“Tokenizing gold hasfailed and will continue to fail. You can't succeed unless you put in the workto understand the market,” addedFraser. “We have spent the last three years putting in the work and that is whyour new market will succeed.”

Tradewindwas created as a spinoff company from IEX Group, which made headlines inmid-2016 after it launched a new equity exchange that incorporated a delay inits platform for all trades. The concept behind the “speed bump,” was to levelthe playing field between high-speed trading algorithms and average investors.

By Neils Christensen

For Kitco News

Contactnchristensen@kitco.comwww.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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