Had the pleasure to meet Fahed Qawasmi, the founder of Goldefi, a decentralized blockchain-based gold digital asset. You'll be hearing about them soon; they're launching in 2024; but I think the takeaways from our conversation are definitely worth sharing.

We are big believers in gold as a hedge against inflation. As a Malaysian, it's clearer every year how poorly our Ringgit has performed versus USD, and the chart below (MYR:USD) wouldn't surprise anyone; the Ringgit has lost +30% against the USD over the last 10 years.

USD to MYR since Feb 2014

 But would you be able to guess the members of the next chart, where a currency has lost +37% vs another?

If you had guessed that this chart was USD:XAU (USD:GOLD), you'd be correct! The USD has fallen significantly against gold since 2014, with other currencies falling even more.

Of course, while we always quote gold against USD, it's not a completely fair comparison: VERY few people will accept grams of gold as payment for goods, and as we always say, there's no easy/legitmate way to earn interest or passive returns for holding gold. However, we hope that in the near future, Mercury Gold and other fintechs like Goldefi will make gold, whether via tokenisation or some other means, fully convertible and available for transactions. Here are Mercury Gold, we are continuing to explore how gold holdings can be used as collateral or deposits for other financial products, and we welcome your ideas and feedback.

As Malaysians, we frustratingly continue to see the ringgit slip against other currencies and even in terms of purchasing power. Think about converting some of your cash holdings into gold savings and save yourself the hassle!