At the beginning of July, a new blockchain startup in Malta was announced. Malta, being one of the most crypto friendly countries around, has become host to multiple exchanges and blockchain startups. In an industry not known for being humble, Palladium was revealed as the one bank to serve them all. A crypto friendly operation that will be regulatory compliant from the beginning.
The founder and Chairman of Palladium, Professor Paolo Catalfamo, said at that time;
“This ICCO is one of the most unique investment opportunities in the blockchain world. Institutional investors recognize the scale of the opportunity, but the lack of regulation has kept them watching from the sidelines. Palladium’s solution will change this.”
The ICCO, in contrast to the generic ICO, references an initial convertible coin offering. This crypto can be converted into equity into Palladium at some point in the future. The ongoing ICCO (or Security Coin Offering) is seeking to raise €150 million. This capital injection will help the company pursue its ambition to create “banking for the crypto age.”
If all goes as planned, the bank will be finalized by early 2019 with a crypto exchange launched soon after.
The entire project has the explicit support of the government of Malta – a country that has aggressively pursued the creation of a blockchain friendly marketplace with bespoke legislation. Even the Prime Minister, Doctor Joseph Muscat was present for the companies launch held at the Malta Stock Exchange. This certainly helps in streamlining the regulatory process but it is also key that Malta is a member of the European Union and thus able to provide services across Europe from day one.
This intriguing blockchain concept and ICCO compelled us to reach out to Palladium management. We had a chance to engage with Pablo Perez Fernandez, CFO of Palladium, and Rahul Sood, CEO and co-founder of Unikrn who is on the Palladium board.
Our discussion is shared below.
Palladium aspires to become the first regulated bank that unites fiat and crypto. What is the status of the bank? Do you have a time frame to launch?
Pablo Perez Fernandez: We plan to purchase an existing European bank once we complete our SCO [Security Coin Offering]. We do have several options in mind for European banks we expect to fall within purchase range of our initial funding, and our timeline projects acquisition of a bank in early 2019.
Once you receive regulatory approval in Malta, will you expand across the EU? Do you expect there to be additional regulatory hurdles? How is the discussion with regulators proceeding?
Pablo Perez Fernandez: The brilliance of Palladium is that we are fully regulator-approved already, and our SCO is operating fully within a European Prospectus Directive. What this means is that our architecture won’t need any additional changes or regulatory approval to launch. All we need is our initial funds and the time to create our initial platform.
When we announced Palladium, we were invited to the Malta Stock Exchange, where Prime Minister Doctor Joseph Muscat spoke, along with Joseph Cuschieri, the Chairman of the Malta Gaming Authority, and Silvio Schembri, the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for financial services, digital economy, and innovation.
We have a strong relationship with officials in Malta, and we are proud to be developing a significant innovation to continue its rise as the Blockchain Island.
You said of this project that other “historic” cryptocurrency projects are guppies but Palladium is a “shark.” Can you expand on this?
Rahul Sood: Palladium isn’t like anything that has existed to date, and the experience it promises to deliver between blockchain, banking, securities & token exchange could expand the crypto market.
Palladium will become a new leader in global Fintech.
Last year we saw the peak of mania surrounding “historic” launches of ICOs that have no notable team, no innovation and no established platform, nor even strong plans for platform production. “Historic” in cryptoland is a cheap word, but actually historic projects have the potential to rewrite daily life.
Can you remember a time before you could pay online with a credit card? Within a decade, the time before when you could easily pay with Bitcoin could seem just as antiquated.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Rahul Sood: ‘Palladium will become a new leader in global #Fintech'” quote=”Rahul Sood: ‘Palladium will become a new leader in global #Fintech'”]
How did the partnership with Bittrex emerge? Why did you select them as a partner?
Rahul Sood: Bill and I have a strong relationship, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for Unikrn. We both have companies based in Seattle and have a strong mutual respect for each other’s companies, leadership and technology. Given that Bittrex is the best exchange on Earth, with the most responsible practices and impressive technology, they were a natural fit for Palladium.
Bittrex is also the only exchange in the world that gets their volumes audited by a large external accounting company, this will become more significant as the market matures.
Overall, this wasn’t a tough sell: the minds behind UnikoinGold partnering with leviathans of investment, banking, insurance and securities to create the world’s first regulator-approved crypto securities exchange and unified crypto/banking interface — Bittrex was just the right partner to make it happen.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Bittrex is also the only exchange in the world that gets their volumes audited by a large external accounting company, this will become more significant as the market matures #Cryptocurrency” quote=”Bittrex is also the only exchange in the world that gets their volumes audited by a large external accounting company, this will become more significant as the market matures #Cryptocurrency”]
Explain the initial convertible coin offering (ICCO) and why this is a good thing for Palladium and crypto in general.
Pablo Perez Fernandez: The Security Coin Offering (SCO), or Initial Convertible Coin Offering, is the solution to a substantial amount of the problems plaguing the blockchain ecology today.
The idea is that purchasing our token gives you the option to convert to a security later, giving investors true equity in Palladium.
This creates greater legitimacy, transparency, and regulation on us, and gives our investors significant peace of mind. ICO “investors” are nothing of the sort: they’re speculators. They speculate that the token price will go up or down. SCO investors will have actual regulated ownership stake in our enterprise.
This is how we bring cypto out of the wild west phase, and as legitimate projects begin using SCOs and Palladium, the first security token exchange, it will reduce the downward pressure caused by uncertainty from rampant speculation.
[clickToTweet tweet=”#ICO “investors” are nothing of the sort: they’re speculators. They speculate that the token price will go up or down. SCO investors will have actual regulated ownership stake in our enterprise @PalladiumFund” quote=”#ICO “investors” are nothing of the sort: they’re speculators. They speculate that the token price will go up or down. SCO investors will have actual regulated ownership stake in our enterprise @PalladiumFund”]
How has it been working with the Malta authorities?
Pablo Perez Fernandez: Many of the leaders of our project have an extensive history working with Malta, and it’s always been a great experience.
This is a nation of forward-looking leaders who have put backbreaking work into encouraging innovation, which is going to pay off in their economy.
What are your biggest hurdles moving forward? Any competitors on the horizon?
Pablo Perez Fernandez: Palladium is singular and at the moment doesn’t have any competitors on the horizon.
We’re more than an exchange, more than a bank, more than an interface; Palladium is in full regulatory approval to accomplish a series of feats never before approached in crypto history. As for hurdles, putting together a historic banking and exchange project obviously isn’t simple, but we’re confident we have the tools we need to launch this project and change the world.
[clickToTweet tweet=”We’re more than an exchange, more than a bank, more than an interface; @PalladiumFund is in full regulatory approval to accomplish a series of feats never before approached in crypto history.” quote=”We’re more than an exchange, more than a bank, more than an interface; @PalladiumFund is in full regulatory approval to accomplish a series of feats never before approached in crypto history.”]
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