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IBM recently dived into the cryptocurrency movement as well, backing stable coin Stronghold USD, which currently holds Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured U.S. Dollars. IBM's partner, Stronghold, was able to secure $3.3 million in seed funding from Freestyle Capital for its Stellar Network-based trading platform.
IBM and Stronghold's partnership aims to tackle the inherent problem of cryptocurrency that has prevented businesses from fully exploring the technology. Cryptocurrency's inherent volatility does not make it an attractive option for traditional financial institutions. Also, considering the relative infancy of cryptocurrency, both corporate organizations and political bodies have yet to have safeguards and moderating bylaws that have been tried and tested.
This puts the aforementioned institutions in a unique position to find ways to adopt blockchain technology and financially handle cryptocurrency. In the World Wealth Report by Capgemini, the younger clients of financial institutions have had an increase in interest regarding cryptocurrency assets. Any financial institution that does not adopt and start implementing services that cater to those clients may find themselves left behind by the future of asset management.
Countries such as Brazil may have started to implement blockchain-based systems but a national policy model that involves private financial institutions has yet to be realized. South Korea may be the closest to implementing such a policy with a proactive government aiming to tackle regulation of the digital currency.
The concept behind the partnership between IBM and Stronghold is that Stronghold's FDIC-insured currency will moderate the fluctuations of the digital currency bought from the cryptocurrency exchange. Also, unlike other cryptocurrency exchanges which are usually open to the public, IBM's blockchain will only be available to vetted participants, which would emphasize the trust needed for such exchanges.
This extra bit of assurance will hopefully allow more conservative banks and financial institutions to adopt and engage in payments through digital cryptocurrency.
