PinkCoin, an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency backed by a pool of fixed coloured diamond assets, will be available for sale on 18 January 2016, starting from 9 a.m. EST.

According to BitGem Asset Management Ltd. (BAM) and its parent company, Precious Investments Inc., the initial crowdsale will offer 5,000,000 PinkCoin tokens. It is also announced that BAM can issue up to 95 million new PinkCoin tokens in future offerings. All of the escrowed diamonds are said to be independently appraised and certified. Insurance is provided by London-based Lloyd’s. The pool of diamonds valued at $5,000,000 will be kept by BAM.

As Dr Nataliya Hearn, CEO of Precious Investments Inc., explains,

“Colored diamonds are the rarest commodity in the world and quite simply the world’s most concentrated form of wealth; it is expected that this trend will continue… Pink and other fancy grade colored diamonds are the only asset class that have consistently increased in value well over 10% per year and they are the only commodity that has not decreased in price since they began being tracked in 1959. This will only enhance the validity of PinkCoins in the market place.”

PinkCoin holders will have a possibility to trade the new currency for other assets on the BitGem Decentralized Marketplace, whose launch is expected in the second quarter of 2016.

According to the crowdsale’s terms, PinkCoin tokens could also be exchanged for bitcoins or other gems based on the pool’s current valuation.

Kashif Khan, president of Precious Investments Inc., predicts that “the BitGems decentralized platform will quickly become the premier marketplace for the trade of diamonds online and that the launch of the PinkCoin cryptocurrency will be a powerful signal for diamond market participants to the new opportunities decentralized commerce can bring the industry.”

Anna Lavinskaya