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Sprott Invests In Gold-Backed Debit Card
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(Kitco News) - One company is looking to bring gold into the financial mainstream, brining debit card backed by the precious metals to the U.S.
Thursday, U.K. fintech company Glint Pay announced that it raised £5 million ($6.35 million) in a private placement with the world’s prominent precious metals investment firm, Sprott Inc., playing a prominent role in the financing. The money raised by Glint will be used to expand Glints operations into the U.S.
“This financing provides the company with the financial resources to launch in the U.S.A. and bring our gold-based debit card and a personal gold standard to all U.S. consumers,” said Jason Cozens, Founder & CEO of Glint in a press release. “Sprott’s investment and partnership is both a validation of Glint’s platform and demonstrates gold’s important role within the 21st century’s global monetary system.”
Its planned expansion into the U.S. comes after Glint initially launched its digital payment system across Europe in early 2018. The platform allows consumers to buy gold and use it to purchase products with a Mastercard linked to their gold-based account.
“The dollar and the pound have both lost more than 85% of their purchasing power over the last 50 years whereas gold’s purchasing power has increased by over 470%,” the company said in a press release. “Glint’s transactional gold currency account offers users the ultimate form of money, insulating them from the destructive effects of inflation and protecting them from the systemic risk of a future global financial crisis.”
According to Glint’s press release, Sprott is now one of the company’s major shareholders.
“Sprott is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the gold market by supporting initiatives that make gold quicker, easier and more cost effective to use as a means of paying for goods and services,” said Peter Grosskopf, CEO of Sprott. “The Glint Mastercard and its physically-backed storage account are groundbreaking technologies and Sprott are pleased to participate in the launch of Glint.”
Glint is not Sprott’s only investment in a digital gold platform. Last year, with some funding from Sprott, Tradewind launched Vaultchain Gold, a digital exchange where investors can buy and sell fractional amounts of physical gold and silver.
