Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell announced on Thursday the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has authorized Paxos Trust Company LLC to offer a gold-backed virtual currency. Lacewell reported that this is the first gold-backed virtual currency that is being offered in New York state. She furthered stated:
“DFS is committed to encouraging innovation while providing regulatory oversight to keep New Yorkers and the rapidly evolving financial services market safe and sound. These approvals reflect DFS’ leadership in the virtual currency arena and our priority to protect consumers in every decision we make.”
Lacewell also revealed that the DFS previously issued a limited purpose trust company in May 2015 to Paxos Trust Company to offer services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing virtual currency. In September of last year Paxo was authorized by the DFS to offer its first asset-backed token pegged to U.S. dollars called Paxos Standard.
“DFS has now authorized Paxos to offer PAX Gold, an asset-backed token that is pegged to gold. In addition, DFS has also now authorized Paxos to offer BUSD, an asset-backed token that is pegged to the U.S. dollar. In total, DFS has approved three asset-backed tokens issued by Paxos: Paxos Standard (PAX), PAX Gold (PAXG), and BUSD.”
Paxos CEO and Co-Founder, Charles Cascarilla, then explained:
“At Paxos, we appreciate the DFS and Superintendent Lacewell’s commitment to protecting consumers while also supporting financial innovation in New York. We are grateful for the opportunity to offer PAX Gold, the first tokenized gold product to receive regulatory approval. By releasing a regulated product that makes it easy to own or trade gold, we’re using blockchain technology to democratize access to a multi-trillion-dollar market and bring gold into the digital future.”
Cascarilla went on to add:
“With BUSD, we will be introducing the stablecoin concept to even more users in new markets. There is growing interest in regulated, asset-backed tokens and we expect to keep powering more for new uses and applications worldwide.”
