New Zealand dollar stablecoin goes live through local crypto exchange

A New Zealand dollar-pegged stablecoin has gone live through a partnership with New Zealand crypto exchange Easy Crypto and Australian blockchain development firm Labrys.

In a Nov. 22 announcement, Labrys and Easy Crypto said the NZDD will be backed 1:1 with cash in trust and regulated by the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority.

It’s initially live on Ethereum but has plans to expand to Polygon, the BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism and Coinbase’s Base.

Easy Crypto was motivated to launch the stablecoin as it claimed it was harder for New Zealanders to maximize their profits when using U.S. dollar-pegged tokens.

Easy Crypto co-founder and CEO Janine Grainger said the NZDD bridges the gap with traditional finance and claimed it would “move NZ forward as a nation, giving us a digital, programmable currency that can do everything the NZD can do.”

Related: Binance launches New Zealand-based offices following regulatory approval

Alongside the stablecoin, Easy Crypto introduced a multicurrency self-custody wallet protected by multiparty computation cryptography by enlisting the user’s “trusted social circle” with parts of the key instead of a seed phrase.

Keep an eye out for an upcoming episode with Easy Crypto talking about the new wallet and new #stablecoin!
#NZDD #investing #alternative #assets #realdiversification pic.twitter.com/Wt9EPq1Gri

— Darcy Ungaro (@UngaroDarcy) November 21, 2023

An August report commissioned by the New Zealand’s parliament said the country has taken an “agile” approach to crypto regulation. It recommend that problems are “addressed as they arise and that the government creates “coherent and consistent guidance on the treatment of digital assets under current law.”

Earlier attempts to launch a NZ dollar-pegged stablecoin include the 2021 launch of $NZDs by Australian financial services provider Techemyny.

However, in 2022, the bridge used by the stablecoin was blacklisted after the hack of the DFX Finance protocol in November 2022 leaving a large portion of funds stranded on the Polygon blockchain.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom