Around 03:00 (UTC) on Saturday (April 27), Singapore-based blockchain project Ontology announced that the fully USD-collateralized stablecoin Paxos Standard (PAX), which until now has only been available on the Ethereum blockchain (as an ERC-20 token), is launching on the Ontology blockchain in May.
Ontology’s introductory white paper says that this is “a blockchain/distributed ledger network which combines a distributed identity system, distributed data exchange, distributed data collaboration, distributed procedure protocols, distributed communities, distributed attestation, and various industry-specific modules.” This combination “builds the infrastructure for a peer-to-peer trust network which is cross-chain, cross-system, cross-industry, cross-application, and cross-device.”
PAX was launched on 10 September 2018 by New York-based blockchain startup Paxos Trust Company (“Paxos”); it is approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
Here are a few interesting facts about PAX:
- “No conversion fees, no PAX transaction fees, no redemption fees”
- “No minimums or limits for purchases or redemptions”
- “The entire supply of PAX is collateralized by USD in dedicated omnibus cash accounts at FDIC-insured U.S. banks, and audited each month by Withum, a nationally ranked auditing firm.”
- Listed on over 80 “exchanges, OTC desks, and wallets”
Ontology’s blog post says that the Ontology version of PAX will be based on Ontology’s OEP-4 token standard, and that will “continue to use PAX as its ticker.” The Ontology team believes that the launch of PAX on the Ontology blockchain will “make it easier for individuals and institutional partners to do business pegged to fiat in the Ontology ecosystem.”
Andy Ji, Co-Founder of Ontology, said:
“The launch of PAX on the Ontology blockchain will greatly accelerate real business applications on Ontology, create more success stories of traditional businesses shifting to distributed businesses, and provide enterprise partners and institutional investors with a regulated, reliable, and safe gateway to the world of digital assets”.
This news comes just two days after New York Attorney General (“NYAG”) Letitia James announced a court order against the operators of Bitfinex and Tether. On Friday (April 26), Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla told The Block that he was not surprised to hear about the NYAG investigating these two companies:
“The industry is trading billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies daily, and relying on these exchanges and stablecoins that have no licensing, no registration, no oversight. It's bad for business and reckless in the long term. We knew this was coming – and we’ve been expecting the tide to turn. That’s why we built Paxos within the framework of regulation and oversight for both our PAX stablecoin and itBit exchange… The news today reinforces our belief that regulation and oversight create confident and stability for the industry and Paxos is proud of its NYDFS-granted Trust charter, the highest form of regulation in the space.”
The news seems to have helped the ONT price; according to CryptoCompare, ONT is currently trading at $1.08, up 5.88% in the past 24-hour period:
Featured Image Courtesy of Ontology
