CEDEX hit the news last October, with its promise to revolutionize the way in which
diamonds are bought and sold, through a combination of blockchain technology and
a proprietary machine learning algorithm. The first ever certified blockchain based
diamond exchange has been one of the most buzzed about ICO's for its stated ability
to turn diamonds into a new financial asset class.
According to a recent Forex Magnates article, the CEDEX ICO has already raised $20 million, while still in the private sale stage. The piece goes on to note that CEDEX has allocated additional CEDEX Coin for the private sale period to meet the increased demand, raising the token amount for this stage from 10 million to 25 million.
Consequently, the number of tokens that are available for the public sale has been
reduced from 40 million to 25 million.
The CEDEX project has been incubated and financed by TechFinancials, a leading
developer of financial trading technologies and a publicly traded company listed in
London Stock Exchange (Symbol: TECH). TechFinancials has declined to comment in
response to the news of CEDEX's current investment status. CEDEX's Co-Founder,
Ronen Prower, simply stated "We raised a very significant amount to this point."
The company's token pre-sale is set for March 16 th at 10.00 am GMT, and it has been
attracting a great deal of global interest, particularly across Asia.
CEDEX's success is due to the fact that it provides a long-awaited solution to the
obstacles that up to now have barred the way to diamond investment.
The main advantage of the CEDEX platform for investors is that it overcomes the
issue that every diamond is unique. Since no two diamonds are alike, creating fair
and transparent pricing has been a challenge. Here's where CEDEX's algorithm
comes in, with the creation of category trading.
The DEX, the company's machine learning algorithm, enables CEDEX to price the
diamonds, rating each stone based on its relative value. This has served to combat
the lack of transparency that has characterized the closed diamond industry, which
has been all but completely inaccessible to non-experts hoping to purchase or sell a
diamond.
Up to now, there has been no exchange where retailers could sell diamonds at their
real market value. This is the first time a two-sided market has been created,
enhancing liquidity dramatically. Individual diamond holders and dealers have a new
channel for selling their inventory and investors hoping to diversify their portfolios
have a marketplace that does not require the services of a valuation expert.
Diamond investors can purchase a single stone or, along with other investors, make
a shared investment in a high-value diamond or in a diamond basket. This is done via
a simple onboarding process that generates smart contracts using blockchain
technology that tokenize the diamond.
Excitement about the CEDEX offering seems doesn't seem to be abating. The amount
of investment it has raised privately, at this stage though impressive, is not
altogether surprising. Interest appears to still be growing as the public token sale
date approaches, but it remains to be seen whether faith in the project will berewarded.
Not only the commodity is marketed but also derivatives. Diamonds or financials can act as collateral. The uniqueness of CEDEX is its ability to level the playing field and make it transparent to an increasing stakeholder group.