RIYADH: Caiz Development GmbH, a fintech company headquartered in Frankfurt, is ready to start trading as the world’s first shariah-compliant cryptocurrency, said its CEO.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Joerg Hansen explained that Caizcoin is a shariah-based crypto token that will enable the Islamic world to join the blockchain future with added value, such as transparency and morality, in its network.
“We are already registered and have launched Caizcoin on five exchanges,” said Hansen.
Caizcon was supposed to start trading on Oct. 10 but held it back indefinitely because of the volatile markets.
“We haven’t actively started trading because we think the markets are too choppy now. We promised the community that we would not go into pure speculation because we’re a long-term project and want long-term people to come in and be with us,” he said.
So, the company has decided to launch them at a good time. Moreover, since the cryptocurrency is technically available on these exchanges, it is just a matter of time before the company starts trading.
In a presale movement, Caizcoin sold around 13 million coins to investors. Hansen refused to disclose the amount collected in the presale phase as part of the nondisclosure agreement.
Hansen added: “At the end of the day, this will be payment tokens used for payments, not speculation. So, it is our goal to make it very stable and reliable. But, of course, it should rise in the long run.”
According to Hansen, Caizcoin offers a wallet that allows users to transfer assets internationally in the shortest possible time with no limit on how long one can hold the assets in their wallet and the flexibility to withdraw at any time.
This feature makes the product very cost-effective and globally available. “To enable the remittance case is probably the most important and biggest use case for this,” said Hansen.
Moreover, Caizcoin will not charge interest payments or apply transaction costs for a selected amount.
“Free and anonymous transactions are made possible up to a selected amount,” added Hansen.
Intending to target more Muslims on his platform, Hansen decided that the firm would not engage in partnerships with any industries prohibited in Islam, such as alcohol and gambling or be involved with risky or speculative instruments.
“Because every coin is linked to the value of the precious metal, any form of speculation is minimized. Also, the company doesn’t allow mining. So there’s no decentralized business; we will only have verified and KYC wallets. So that already tells you we will be a permitted system,” explained Hansen.
He further said: “Another thing we cannot do is staking, though we’re currently working with one of the exchanges on an Islamic alternative for staking.”
The crypto company is also developing new products to supplement its offerings and improve its cash flow.