A Bermudian-based company plans to sell coins that reflect value in diamonds in a $25 million offering scheduled for next Monday.

Diamond Standard Ltd aims to open up the diamond market to investors through the creation of the digital coin and the Diamond Standard Exchange.

The company was featured in the lead story of the Business and Finance section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

The Journal reported: “The aim is to create the equivalent of a standard gold bar — a new benchmark for an industry that has struggled with the challenges of valuing esoteric stones in an opaque market.

“New commodity products often struggle to attract a large number of investors. But if it is widely adopted, the coin would introduce a new way of trading diamonds and another source of demand for the stones, which have tumbled in price as jewellery consumption sags during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It could also enhance steps taken by industry participants to modernise in an era of clearer pricing and supply-chain traceability.”

The Journal quoted Adonis Pouroulis, founder of miner Petra Diamonds, as saying the coin “will have a huge impact”.

According to Diamond Standard’s website, the Bermuda Monetary Authority is the offering regulator and its approval is pending.

In response to our questions, a spokesman for the BMA said last night: “All of the companies we regulate are on our website.” Diamond Standard is not among the five digital asset business licence holders listed by the BMA.

Diamond Standard plans to sell 5,000 coins each worth $5,000. The company will then bid on millions of diamonds and adjust its bids until it can buy a sample of about 50,000 to 60,000.

All diamonds will be purchased through the Diamond Standard Exchange, the world’s first global diamond exchange.

The geological information about the diamonds purchased by the company will be put in a public database. From there, a computer program will select a comparable distribution of 11 or 12 to go into each coin.

“Every coin is approximately gemologically equivalent and intended to trade on the market at the same price, like a common gold coin,” Diamond Standard’s website explains.

In addition to the diamonds, each coin contains a wireless computer chip that enables electronic auditing and instant authentication and also stores a blockchain token known as a BitCarbon Coin.

Cormac Kinney, the chief executive officer of Diamond Standard, told The Royal Gazette last November: “We are reinventing the diamond supply chain. This exchange in Bermuda will be the global exchange for centralised liquidity for diamonds.

“No diamond exchange in the world has a ‘bid and ask’, and a clearing mechanism. That’s what we have created.”

• Diamond Standard has a website at https:// diamondstandard.co. The group is advertising for staff for its Bermuda operations at careers.diamondstandard.co