CEDEX, the blockchain-based diamond commodity exchange, announced today it has secured a liquid supply of assets to launch its trading platform; with over 6000 diamonds with a total value of over $50 million. This ensures traders have a variety of investment options prior to the launch of the first diamond ETF; which is currently in development.
CEDEX raised $20m in March 2018 to develop its institutional-grade platform that allows investors to securely and easily trade diamonds through a Digital Diamond Certificate, while enabling diamond holders to liquidate their assets. The platform went live in Beta mode November 2018. Using both blockchain technology and the DEX, a unique proprietary algorithm, CEDEX has overcome the three main obstacles that have previously prevented diamonds from becoming a tradable asset class: lack of transparency, liquidity, and fungibility.
CEDEX’s platform has solved the issues surrounding fungibility and transparency and the company is currently developing a “generic” ETF product that will allow investors to trade diamonds as a financial asset class. It is currently liaising with global partners such as commodity/retail brokerages, top exchanges, ETF issuers, and banks in order to offer an API solution that will allow simple integration of the ETF products onto their trading platforms. Ultimately, enabling their customers to trade on CEDEX’s inventory and generating liquidity in the market.
The unique nature of each diamond on the exchange means traders have the opportunity to trade in diamonds of different sizes, values, and diversified risk profiles; with a low carry cost. Diamonds are the only commodity that allows this.
Traders can both hedge their portfolios to preserve value and take advantage of the more volatile diamond markets (e.g. colored diamonds) all with a single commodity. The platform’s investment tools can indicate fair market prices and proposition attractiveness levels across many diamond categories to cater to investors’ appetite for risk.
Co-Founder and CEO, Saar Levi, has a deep understanding of the commodities markets due to spending decades in senior positions at names such as Barclays and Lehman Brothers.
CEDEX enables diamond holders to trade their diamonds at a fair price using the DEX – enabling the CEDEX exchange to provide its investors with non-biased price evaluation for every single diamond that has been GIA-certified. The DEX score is based on a diamond’s gemological perfection, market price (based on 20 years of past and current parallel data), and the liquidity of each diamond category.