A NYC real-estate titan who learned about crypto from his teenage son has secured $6 billion in gold to back a new digital token
- Real estate mogul Kent Swig has landed $6 billion in gold reserves to back a new cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported.
- The token will be called DIGau and will be pegged to the market price of gold.
- Swig said his interest in cryptocurrencies was stoked after learning from his teenage son.
New York City real estate titan Kent Swig is backing a new cryptocurrency and has landed at least $6 billion in gold reserves for the venture, according to a Bloomberg report.
Digital token DIGau's value will be pegged to gold's market price, guaranteed by liens against mining claims in Nevada and Arizona that were secured by Swig and his partner Stephen Braverman's company, Dignity Gold.
Swig, 60, said he searched worldwide for gold assets for 18 months to secure the $6 billion of reserves.
"We're not reinventing the wheel here. What we're doing is applying the world's stable backing of a lot of things to a very advanced technology," Swig told Bloomberg in an interview published Tuesday.
Swig, who owns realty firm Brown Harris Stevens, said his interest in cryptocurrencies was piqued after his teenage son talked to him about the concept. Swig said DIGau will stand out as a gold-backed, U.S.-based crypto security that pays a dividend to token holders.
There's been a jump in institutional interest in cryptocurrencies including at investment bank Morgan Stanley and electric vehicle maker Tesla. Wall Street on Wednesday is greeting Coinbase, the first cryptocurrency exchange to begin trading publicly.