eToro, a social trading and multi-asset brokerage firm with offices in Israel, Cyprus, and the UK, is reportedly planning to launch its own stablecoin.
When questioned about whether eToro would be releasing its own stablecoin (at the Finance Magnates London Summit), Yoni Assia, the CEO of eToro, confidently said: “Absolutely, yes!”
Founded in 2006 and established first in Tel Aviv, eToro (formerly known as RetailFX) appears to be aggressively expanding its operations.
eToro Launches New Crypto Wallet
As CryptoGlobe reported recently, eToro released its own cryptocurrency wallet – which is currently available to users in all EU member states, Gibraltar, and Switzerland. The company will also be allowing crypto-to-crypto conversions in the near future.
On November 7th, eToro announced that it would launch a blockchain-enabled social project – which involves developing a “non-speculative” digital currency.
According to eToro’s announcement, its new currency will be somewhat based on the idea of universal basic income (UBI) – which “is a type of program in which the residents of a country may receive a regular sum of money from a source such as the government. [UBI is] a pure or unconditional basic income, [and] it is distributed automatically to all citizens without a requirement to notify changes in the citizen’s financial status.”
A Currency For Those Who “Have Less”
Although eToro’s new currency project does not appear to be identical to the classical UBI model, it is based on similar concepts. Specifically, eToro’s cryptocurrency will aim to pay social interest to the less fortunate, or those who “have less.”
Notably, eToro revealed its plans to launch this new type of crypto to a large audience at the Web Summit held in Lisbon, Portugal (on November 7th). The multi-asset trading service provider has called its social initiative the GoodDollar project.
eToro has also reportedly invested $1 million in the GoodDollar project, and is actively looking for more investors to participate in the development of its currency for social good.
Many Potential Use Cases For Stablecoins
Although it’s unclear at this time whether eToro’s stablecoin project will be related to the company’s GoodDollar project, the social trading platform would be joining a growing list of companies that have either launched, or are planning to launch their on stablecoin.
As CryptoGlobe reported, Coinjar exchange CEO, Asher Tan, has said that stablecoins have the potential to serve a useful purpose in many different types of crypto businesses. Tan revealed that there are now many experienced traditional financial market professionals who are interested in stablecoins.
Tan remarked:
The interesting thing right now, what's on everyone's lips … [are] stablecoins. It's a craze right now … It helps you transfer money around the crypto ecosystem at a stable rate. But there's a whole lot of applications or use-cases that could come out of it
