IBM adds strength to Stronghold’s crypto token launch
Payment and trade ecosystem provider Stronghold has unveiled the “first and only” venture-backed USD anchor on the open-source protocol Stellar Network.
Called the Stronghold USD token, it is asset-backed (at one-to-one US dollars per coin) with reserves held by an unnamed state-chartered trust company.
San Francisco-based Stronghold, which recently raised seed funding from Freestyle Capital, will use Stellar’s blockchain protocol to issue and transact the token while providing access to liquidity through its exchange services and the custodial relationship with its partnered trust company.
Stronghold’s co-founder and CTO, Sean Bennett, says: “Asset-backed tokens can provide seamless access to all currencies, improving the global movement of money.”
The firm also announced a new collaboration with IBM to explore uses for Stronghold USD within blockchain business networks on the IBM Blockchain Platform.
Jesse Lund, global VP of IBM Blockchain, adds: “New types of fiat-backed instruments, like Stronghold’s USD token, have the potential to improve the backbone of international banking operations and payments, giving banks an easier way to integrate with public blockchain networks without significant changes to their core banking and compliance infrastructure.”
Leaving the safety of Stronghold for a moment, yesterday (17 July), Columbia University and IBM set up a centre devoted to research in blockchain technology and data transparency.
While today (18 July), Stellar says it is the first distributed ledger protocol to receive Shari’ah compliance certification in the money transfer and asset tokenisation space.
