Britain’s Royal Mint, the world’s leading export mint, has suspended plans to launch its own digital gold token.
According to Reuters, the plans fell through after a partnership with North American CME Group failed with the British government refusing the proposal to have the tokens trade on a cryptocurrency exchange.
The digital gold token, called the Royal Mint Gold (RMG), may not see the light of day after yesterday’s (Oct 25) announcements.
Had the deal gone through, it would have been the first time a government from a developed country would have been involved with a crypto exchange.
It seems however – as Royal Mint is a government-owned company – that the British government is still hesitant about getting involved in the largely unregulated space of cryptocurrencies.
Royal Mint Gold was planned to be a gold-backed coin, for every RNG token there would be an equivalent gram of gold in the vaults of Royal Mint. The company had plans to issue RMG tokens worth up to $1 billion on a cryptocurrency trading platform run by the CME Group. However, when the scheduled release date in autumn of 2017 was nearing, the CME Group decided to pull out.
One of the Reuters sources explained:
“CME’s management changed, and they walked away, didn’t want to get involved,”
Royal Mint also reportedly tried to save the project by looking at other exchanges to partner up. The project was eventually called off in early 2018 by Britain’s finance minister, arguing that it would be a big risk for the reputation of Royal Mint and the British government.
Many saw the project as an innovative gold investment product. By providing zero ongoing management and storing costs, while ensuring transparent and direct ownership of physical gold, RMG seemed promising to some investors. Its suspension however, now opens doors for other gold-backed cryptocurrencies.
