ANZ becomes first Australian bank to mint stablecoin

(Reuters) – Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said on Thursday it carried out an Australian dollar stablecoin payment, in a landmark transaction to become the first Australian lender to mint a digital asset linked to the country’s currency.

A stablecoin is a kind of digital asset that is devised to keep its value stable in relation to another asset, and are frequently used as a portal to other cryptocurrencies or to generate income in decentralised financial systems.

ANZ said it has delivered the Australian dollar stablecoin, which it calls A$DC, to a private wealth management firm for digital assets – Victor Smorgon Group – through digital asset investment platform Zerocap.

The company’s move to mint digital assets linked to the Australian dollar comes after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said last year the growth of digital wallets could allow the exchange of tokens or digital forms of money that could be backed by the RBA, even as the central bank remains sceptical of the digital currency.

ANZ, the country’s number three lender, said it has minted 30 million of A$DC using a smart contract and the coins were transferred between the parties and later redeemed back into Fiat currency.

(Reporting by Riya Sharma; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)