Hedera Blockchain Welcomes $3 Billion Tokenization of Diamonds and Luxury Items

• By issuing digital certificates on the Hedera blockchain, the World Gemological Institute (WGI) aims to modernize the diamond industry by ensuring transparency, authenticity, and security.
• WGI-graded assets will receive blockchain certificates ensuring immutable verification of their authenticity, provenance, and ownership.

The World Gemological Institute (WGI), has introduced a revolutionary tie-up with the fintech outfit Vaultik on tokenizing $3 billion worth of luxuries, which include diamonds and gemstones to watches and jewellery, on Hedera blockchain. This is about modernizing a 100-bn-dollar diamond industry on a distributed ledger. Thus, it will ensure authenticity and transparency for these certified assets and security.

Terms of Hedera’s New Partnership

Under the new deal, all WGI-graded goods shall receive a blockchain-based digital certificate. This ensures immutable verification regarding their provenance, grading, authenticity, and ownership. “Tokenizing our certificates ensures that buyers and sellers can rely on a secure, verifiable system for confirming the value, authenticity, and ownership of precious assets,” said Noam Lenzini, Co-Founder and CEO of WGI.

One of the most innovative aspects of the system is the fact that insurance can be directly linked to the digital certificates. With the use of global broker Acrisure, clients can quickly and easily insure their valuables. According to Pietro Novelli, Co-Founder and CEO of Vaultik,

The ability to purchase insurance directly via the certificates offers consumers immediate protection for their goods, while enabling authenticators such as gemologists, jewelers, and luxury goods dealers to offer a new, valuable service.

Addressing Concerns of Fraud Prevention

Adding another layer of fraud prevention, WGI intends to laser-etch Token IDs onto assets similar to existing diamond report numbers. Additionally, the certified items will be sealed with NFC chips. In the case of any attempt to tamper with the item, the digital certificate stands canceled. Customers can authenticate their products by scanning the chip with a smartphone, thereby giving strong protection across the supply chain.

This collaboration seeks to address longstanding challenges in the luxury market, such as fraud and inefficiency. “Traditional paper-based certificates or emailed PDFs are prone to tampering and inefficiencies. By harnessing blockchain technology, we’re providing a far more secure, cost-effective solution that ensures authenticity, reduces fraud, and enhances consumer confidence,” Novelli noted.

Hedera’s high-performance, sustainable distributed ledger technology enables this initiative. As the UK’s largest gemstone certification laboratory, WGI will also authenticate every asset uploaded to Vaultik’s consumer app. Although WGI’s specialization extends to diamonds and gemstones, the rest, such as handbags and watches, will be covered by Vaultik’s network of collaborators globally.

As we reported earlier, the Hedera network is gaining strong prominence in tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) such as stocks and real estate. The Hedera Token Service (HTS) enables easy creation and management of tokens on the Hedera network.

HBAR Price Soars Over 11%

Amid the news of the latest partnership, Hedera’s HBAR token gained over 11% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, the HBAR price surged 11.32% to $0.3345 on Thursday, January 16. Moreover, the trading volume for the crypto skyrocketed 96.06% to $1.34 billion, which indicates growing market interest, as explained in our latest analysis. 

Furthermore, the 7-day gains are now around 23%, marking a significant feat amid the volatile crypto market trends. The derivatives market also depicted a positive picture for Hedera’s native token. According to Coinglass stats, the HBAR open interest jumped by 25.01% today, reaching a whopping $448.98 million.