Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has recently joined forces with Fireblocks, a crypto custodian, to mint a stablecoin pegged to the Australian dollar.
- According to ANZ, this event marks the first time that a major bank is involved in creating a stablecoin.
- The stablecoin was created for Victor Smorgon Group, which is a large Australia-based family office and they plan to use it for trading on Zerocap, a cryptocurrency exchange with its headquarter in Melbourne.
- “An ANZ-issued Australian dollar stablecoin is a first step in enabling our customers to find a safe and secure gateway to the digital economy,” Nigel Dobson, ANZ Banking Services Portfolio Lead, said during a press release.
- According to the Victor Smorgon Group, when users want to transfer their assets to Zerocap using their stablecoin, it takes only 30 minutes for the process to complete. This is much faster than the usual day or two with fiat wire transfer.
- CEO of Fireblocks Michael Shaulov said in a statement that he expects more banks will follow in ANZ’s footsteps.
- As a custodian and infrastructure provider, Fireblocks has had partnerships with BNY Mellon (BK), Siam Commercial Bank, Revolut and Crypto.com.
- Initially, the market segment for ANZ’S A$DC will be institutional clients, then it will move on to target retail customers on crypto exchanges.
- While A$DC is currently supported by the Ethereum blockchain, ANZ also plans to expand it to Hedera and other chains in the near future.