OneGold, an online marketplace for the purchase, sale and redemption of precious metals, announced on January 13th a partnership with BitPay that will allow crypto users to purchase gold and other precious metals on Android and iOS devices.
Thanks to its integration with BitPay - Bitcoin's leading payment service provider, which currently supports more than 30,000 merchants, including Microsoft and Avnet - the new OneGold mobile application will accept payments in Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH) and various stable coins. In addition, BitPay customers will save 2% when using the service on OneGold.com.
Bitcoin has often been compared to gold, and Bloomberg recently reported that it is the equivalent of digital gold because there is a link between them that extends deeper than both are a safe haven, limited assets.
In a new report Bloomberg's market analyst Mike McGlone described 2020 as the best year for safe haven assets, suggesting that the gold market moves will act as a proxy for BTC's price performance.
McGlone points to the recent increase in Bitcoin's value after the US-sanctioned assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Shortly after this event, both the price of Bitcoin and gold rose.
In particular, the stable coin operator Paxos created a crypto-asset convertible into physical gold. In September 2019, Paxos launched PAX Gold (PAXG), an ERC-20 token secured with gold, claiming it is the first crypto-asset convertible to physical gold.
According to the report, each PAXG chip will be back by one ounce of London Good Delivery Gold troy. Token holders are said to own the gold they represent, but the chips can be transferred like all other ERC-20 assets, which Paxos notes is simpler than shipping gold.
Paxos' stablecoin resembles the service model offered by OneGold, which was founded by the APMEX precious metals dealer and Sprott's alternative asset manager. The company provides millions of customers around the world with the ability to store precious metals digitally. When OneGold users are ready to acquire ownership, they can convert their precious metal inventory into physical metals, which are shipped by APMEX on the same business day.
