Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) is forging ahead with its crypto plans with a novel new transaction.
Back in March, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) listed bank unveiled A$DC, its own stablecoin that's pegged to the Australian dollar.
More recently, stablecoins have come under some intense scrutiny, following the collapse of Terra USD and Luna. But unlike Terra's stablecoin, ANZ's crypto is 100% backed by Australian dollars.
Saying it wasn't at risk of coming de-pegged from the Aussie dollar, ANZ's banking services portfolio lead Nigel Dobson labelled A$DC a "tokenised deposit".
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ANZ crypto used to buy Australian carbon credits
The Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) in question were tokenised by BetaCarbon, which created digital security tokens known as BCAUs.
As the Australian Financial Review reports, investment company Victor Smorgon Group used A$DC to purchase ACCUs.
By making the transaction with crypto on the Ethereum blockchain, Victor Smorgon was able to secure its carbon credit purchase without going through traditional intermediaries. These can add complexity and slow down settlement times.
Commenting on A$DC, Dobson said:
ANZ is pursuing the transition of financial market infrastructure. We see this is evolving from being internet-protocol based to one of tokenised protocols. We think the underlying infrastructure – efficient, secure, public blockchains – will facilitate transactions, both ones we understand today and new ones, that will be more efficient.
Dobson also touted the Ethereum blockchain over other, potentially riskier, options:
Standards are absolutely fundamental to interoperability, and they will soon allow organisations to transfer assets off expensive, and arguably unsustainable, blockchains, to ones with lower cost, faster throughput and sustainability credentials.
How has the ASX 200 bank been tracking?
Stablecoin rollouts aside, the ANZ share price has struggled in 2022, down around 18%. That compares to a year-to-date loss of 12% posted by the ASX 200.
