Back in August, Ainslie Bullion in Brisbane, Australia started accepting crypto currency as a payment option for bullion products. This was a move driven by customer demand and was a new and successful chapter for the business.
As part of their expansion into the crypto space, they also began offering a service whereby customers can purchase paper wallets that are created in their office and, like metal purchases, can be taken by the customer or actually securely vaulted. Additionally, it's possible for customers to sell metal for crypto or even to simply buy and sell crypto directly without any metal involvement.
Currently the business deals in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple and they have admitted that they are looking to expand this offering into the future.
In what is quite a well rounded product offering, Ainslie also have experience in self managed superannuation. Holding precious metal in a SMSF is already an established option but interestingly, it's also possible to hold cryptocurrency as an audit trail is possible for accounting purposes.
Today Ainslie published here a very interesting snippet which features director Paul Engeman's recent interview with Alex Saunders.
It's a brief clip but is a very well rounded summary of the opportunities that the business saw in the introduction of cryptocurrency and an interesting insight into customer demand and the complimentary roles that precious metals and cryptocurrency play in a balanced and uncorrelated portfolio.
For those unfamiliar with Alex's work, the following excerpt courtesy of the Ainslie link above does an excellent job of introducing it.
Alex 'Nugget' Saunders was a fan of precious metals after reading about the GFC and the inner workings of the current financial system. Since 2012 he's been living and breathing Bitcoin. He now runs Australia's largest cryptocurrency Youtube channel 'Nugget's News'. In a world of misinformation and hype, his passion is educating others in a factual, unbiased manner. He now covers all the latest blockchain related projects and the overall happenings in the cryptocurrency markets. He recently completed a nation wide tour with free meet ups in most capital cities. He is fast becoming one of the leading voices in the cryptocurrency space in Australia and Internationally.
Personally, I feel that the amalgamation of cryptocurrency and bullion as forms of sound money is a very sensible business model and the Ainslie experience has provided some decent evidence that it works in the "real world". The balancing forces of the old and the new, the stable and the volatile, the digital and the physical in a one stop shop is appealing to a broad audience.
Importantly, businesses that incorporate both precious metals and cryto into their product suites help to facilitate transactions between the two that exclude fiat and help to introduce bullion buffs to crypto and visa versa. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes an increasing trend in the future and I for one would be happy to see it!
What do you think? Is this just the start of businesses of all walk integrating crypto into their operations? I look forwrd to your thoughts and thank you for reading!