Toronto-based Goldmoney, a gold-based payments and savings platform that allows users to acquire, store, and spend gold stored in a secure vault, has raised $30 million in financing.
Goldmoney entered into an agreement with GMP Securities L.P. and Mackie Research Capital Corporation to purchase common shares. The shares are expected to be offered to Canadian accredited investors, and the agreement is expected to close at the end of October.
The company plans to use the funding to further develop its blockchain offerings. Last week, Goldmoney announced that clients can buy, sell, and exchange cryptocurrencies with nine global currencies as well as gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion. Wallet holders can sell a variety of cryptocurrencies and fund their Goldmoney Holding with fiat currency to access precious metals and other Goldmoney service offerings.
The company also announced the launch of BlockVault, its subsidiary dedicated to providing institutional-grade custodial and investment services for blockchain assets. BlockVault will power Goldmoney’s planned ColdBlocks cryptocurrency. The company says ColdBlocks, which it will release at the end of the year, are insurable and auditable as vaulted-custodial assets at any London Bullion Market Association-eligible vault location around the world that currently secures precious metals.
The company plans to hire a sales team out of its Toronto office to offer these services to regulated financial service providers, brokerage firms, investment managers, and high-net-worth-individuals.
“As the market for Blockchain assets and cryptocurrencies has transitioned from its original premise of powering payments and remittances with a decentralized proof-of-work token to becoming a nascent speculative asset class, it has been perplexing to watch multiple technology companies serve as custodians for these assets – often safeguarding billions of dollars of wealth – while providing nearly zero accountability, transparency, or compliance with what are the most basic standards in the financial services industry,” said Goldmoney CEO Roy Sebag.
Sebag said that leading cryptocurrency custodians don’t publish an annual or quarterly audit, which prevents institutional investors from entering the institutional space.
“The idea for ColdBlocks came about when one of our leading institutional investors asked us to devise a way for regulated hedge funds to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, while providing the regulatory assurances mandated by their prospectus offering under securities-law,” he said.