Norwegian Block Exchange To Tokenize Krone Before Going Global

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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At this stage, with planned tokenization of both gold and the local currency Norwegian krone (NOK) in the works, Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) is set to prioritize regional growth over global expansion, NBX Co-Founder and Managing Director Stig Kjos-Mathisen told Cryptonews.com.

“The next year, NBX will focus on offering trading pairs, services, and products that are attractive to the Nordic market,” NBX’s Kjos-Mathisen said, adding that they view “a strong foothold in the Nordics” as an important stepping stone on the way to offer global services.

A recent update from the company, affiliated with troubled low-cost airline Norwegian Air, showed that the average trading volume is well below USD 1m per month.

Among the regionally-focused products are both gold and a tokenized NOK, which will open up access to crypto lending and borrowing protocols for stablecoins pegged to other currencies than the USD, the executive said. He added that the company sees this as an important goal for the exchange, given “how vulnerable today’s payment infrastructure is.”

However, the company also sees a role for tokenization of other real-world assets, and most importantly, gold, which it said in a recent blog post could “eliminate rent-seeking” from the gold market, while also making price manipulation and suppression schemes “much harder to carry out” on a global scale.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of NBX, which is a fully regulated and centralized exchange, also said that he does not feel threatened by the recent rise of decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, arguing that there is “room for and need for both.”

“I think centralized exchanges with proper KYC/AML [know-your-customer/anti-money laundering] routines will be the preferred marketplace for institutions and corporations going forward,” Kjos-Mathisen said, adding: “I don’t think any of them will be associated with being the counterpart to the Kucoin hacker dumping stolen funds on the Uniswap exchange.”
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