NEOBANKS OF THE WORLD
A golden opportunity Gold buying and trading app Minted was preparing to launch just as the pandemic prompted an investor stampede for bullion. So, it pulled out the stops and within weeks had turned over £500K. For co-founder Shahid Munir, it was the start of a glittering new career It was Voltaire who said paper money eventually goes back to its intrinsic value of zero. Time and time again, he’s been proved right. Whether it was the fall of the Roman denarius or the Iranian rial, which now trades at 42,100 for one US dollar, fiat money eventually becomes worthless. Perhaps that’s why some economies still prefer to trade in gold. It’s glitzy, tangible and holds its value. Recently, we’ve seen a rise in gold bartering in India, where households store an
incredible 25,000 tonnes of gold, the highest domestic stash of any nation. But it’s not just the East that trusts gold more than fiat currencies or volatile investments. Like religion or family, it tends to be what we turn to when all else fails. When markets wobble, investors pile it on like gangsters at a bling convention. We saw it in the aftermath of 2008, when gold demand hit a 28-year high. And we’re seeing it now, in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession. On August 4, spot gold raced past trading
highs of $2,000/oz, only for prices to experience their sharpest fall in seven months and then more than recover within the space of a few hours a week later. Despite the somersaults it’s performed recently, gold is famously dependable. But, on the whole, it’s not the likes of you and me who benefit. Shahid Munir knows about gold and, with a cohort of entrepreneurs, he’s created a gold-trading app or our time: Minted.
An ore-some feat: Minted is working on allowing users to pay with gold
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TheFintechMagazine | Issue 17
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