Asset manager Victor Smorgon just bought carbon credits using ANZ's stablecoin

Melbourne family investment firm Victor Smorgon Group (VSG) has pioneered another digital transaction using the ANZ bank’s stablecoin, A$DC, this time buying carbon credits.

VSG used A$DC to purchase the BCAU carbon tokens from Zerocap, an Australian crypto asset investment platform, via BetaCarbon, which tokenises Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) into digital tokens, with each representing 1kg of carbon captured.

This transaction provides A$DC/BCAU liquidity, while offering both Victor Smorgon Group and Zerocap redemption rights for A$DC.

A$DC remains fully collateralised by the Australian dollar, and is redeemable at par with funds held in an ANZ-managed reserve account.

The latest transaction follows the pioneering first Australian dollar stablecoin (A$DC) payment in a public permissionless blockchain transaction for Victor Smorgon Group via Zerocap in March this year. For that transaction, ANZ minted 30 million A$DC using its bank-built Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible smart contract deployed through the Fireblocks platform. These coins were transferred between the parties and later redeemed back into Fiat currency.

ANZ Banking Services Lead Nigel Dobson said the transaction is an important step for ANZ as the bank explores greater circulation of the stablecoin.

“This milestone transaction brings together two key focus areas for ANZ, sustainability and digital assets,” he said.

“We’re seeing increasing customer appetite to use A$DC to enter the digital economy, and will continue to partner with our clients to explore how this technology can help them achieve their goals.”

Zerocap CEO Ryan McCall said the transaction continues the company’s ambition to take digital assets mainstream,

BetaCarbon CEO Guy Dickinson said his fintech startup provides the easiest and most competitive access to participate in the Australian carbon market via blockchain.

“This is core to BetaCarbon’s mission to accelerate the race to net-zero and revolutionise how we all interact with carbon markets for investors, businesses and consumers,” he said.