Cryptocurrencies are rife with conflicts of interest, scams, and theft risks, Hellogold boss Robin Lee tells finews.asia. He details how he believes regulators will step in, and why cryptocurrencies are the new gold.
Robin Lee, Hellogold is about to launch a gold-backed cryptocurrency. What differentiates it from the other tokens?
GoldX aims to serve the mass market – the underserved and the unbanked. We have built the product so that it will quickly earn the trust of our customers and, very importantly, regulators.
We've adopting processes and controls taken from my experience managing the world’s largest physically-backed gold exchange traded fund, and made sure we work with the most reputable advisors, auditors and lawyers.
Are you worried about swings in cryptocurrencies, or tighter regulation?
We welcome regulation. The market today is rife with conflicts of interest, cyber-theft risk and plain scams that threaten to undermine the true value of this amazing technology – the blockchain.
«Regulators will – and should – step into crypto»
As interest in crypto markets becomes mainstream and more consumers enter the market, regulators should and will step in. We believe that the value of our project will only be reinforced when this happens. Sophisticated investors will look to hedge their portfolios and, for that, there’s no better asset than gold.
Recent market turmoil has shown that cryptocurrencies aren't the haven that gold traditionally has been.
We believe crypto is key to the future of gold. Gold is one of the oldest commodities in the world, but access to it hasn’t changed much over the last two millennia, mostly because high transportation, storage and security costs make it a prohibitive investment except for high volume purchases.
«Gold will finally be truly accessible as an investment to anyone who has a phone»
The exchange-traded fund on gold, so fractionalization and securitization of ownership, changed things in a very significant way. However, the ETF is restricted to individuals who have the wealth and knowledge to access this type of exchange traded product. The less affluent are still excluded from the market. Crypto will change this. It provides for an extremely secure and cost-efficient platform to distribute gold at scale.
Robin Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Hellogold. The firm issued Malaysia’s first digital token sale last summer, with proceeds in excess of $5 million. Previously, he was the finance chief of the World Gold Council.
