Swarm NFT Initiative Brings Gold-Backed Assets to Users Ahead of MiCA
Swarm, the Berlin-based RWA platform founded by innovator Timo Lehes, is revolutionizing the non-fungible token (NFT) space with its brand-new gold-backed product ahead of the European Union’s new MiCA regulation.
Swarm Users Have More Control Over Assets With Gold-Backed NFT, CEO Says
Swarm’s latest venture will allow customers to buy a real-world asset backed by a gold bar linked to its own unique NFT.
The new initiative by the German company could be promising for those interested in having greater control over their assets as the world faces increased fragility and violence.
“We’re so used to having balances on banks, brokerage accounts, and elsewhere, and we have no control over those assets,” Lehes stated, noting that Swarm offers users full transparency over their store of value. “Actually bringing things on-chain, you do have the legal right to that underlying asset, and you’re actually controlling the asset through your own wallet.”
We've been hinting at this for a while, and now it's finally time for the reveal…
Imagine holding the oldest and most trusted investment with unmatched transparency, control and flexibility.
Introducing #tokenized gold via NFTs 🧵
Our head of BD @Katieevans251 explains how… pic.twitter.com/KLHxGvTZW2
— Swarm (@SwarmMarkets) June 25, 2024
Notably, the RWA platform’s venture successfully circumnavigated the EU’s Market in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA), which was set to become effective July 1 due to its NFT nature.
“This Regulation should not apply to crypto-assets that are unique and not fungible with other crypto-assets, including digital art and collectibles,” MiCA reads. “The value of such unique and non-fungible crypto-assets is attributable to each crypto-asset’s unique characteristics and the utility it gives to the holder of the token.”
“The NFTs are still basically out of the MiCA framework as long as you don’t fractionalize them or make them fungible,” Lehes said. “The other piece that’s also quite exciting about where MoCA sits right now is it doesn’t define how DeFi fits into the regulatory framework.”
With the European stage set for even greater blockchain innovation, Swarm users can also trade their assets on the platform’s secondary liquidity platform after passing know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws.
“The company’s not only making tokenization possible, but it’s also solving some critical aspects of liquidity,” Lehes said.
What’s Next For Swarm
According to CoinGecko, the emerging tokenized gold industry is currently valued at around $1.15 billion. Swarm is getting ahead of the industry’s competition by exploring ways to provide easy-to-use applications for assets it has already brought on the chain.
The Swarm team is now working on several critical lending platform integrations between the DeFi ecosystem and the RWA space.
“I think that’s the natural step that we’re working on now is how to integrate with a lot of Web3 wallet companies as well as some Web2 companies,” the CEO said.
