The Perth Mint Gold Token, a cryptocurrency token secured by gold and guaranteed by the government of Western Australia, begins public trading today, debuting on the KuCoin exchange.

The token was launched in October by precious-metals digitization company InfiniGold Pty. Ltd. and is backed one-to-one by GoldPass certificates issued by the Perth Mint.

GoldPass certificates are 100% backed by physical gold held by the Perth Mint in storage. The Perth Mint is owned and run by the Gold Corporation that is a statutory authority of the Western Australian government.

PMGT is pitched as having zero fees for custody, storage, insurance and management, making it a cost-effective gold asset. The token is said to be a competitive alternative to traditional gold products such as gold ETFs, banked gold transfers and more. Given that it’s secured by physical gold, the token also offers an alternative to commonly used “risk-off tokens,” in particular U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins.

“As The Perth Mint is the largest refinery of newly mined gold in the world, we’ve got an unprecedented depth of liquidity to bring to the market with the Perth Mint Gold Token,” Andreas Ruf, chief executive officer of InfiniGold, said in a statement. “We haven’t simply purchased a couple of gold bars, put them in a vault and then tokenized them. We can tap into billions of dollars worth of gold stored at The Perth Mint.”

The test on debut for PMGT will be as to whether it finds an audience and whether that audience is looking for digital gold investments or an alternative stablecoin given the product caters to both. At its core it provides an easy way to invest in gold given in that the token remains physically tied to gold.

Likewise, at a time when some stablecoin providers controversially dip into funds that are meant to secure their cryptocurrencies, the guaranteed government-backed link to physical gold make it an appealing alternative there as well.

KuCoin account holders who have passed verification can trade PMGT immediately with their holdings fully redeemable for physical gold via The Perth Mint’s GoldPass. The token has a minimum investment is 0.00001oz of gold, approximately AU$0.024 ($0.016).

Image: Perth Mint Gold Token/Facebook