Diginex’s New EQO Token is Not for Sale

Digital asset financial services company Diginex will become the first Nasdaq-listed company to issue its own token. 

Diginex (Ticker EQOS) became the first blockchain-centered company to trade on Nasdaq in October 2020. The EQUOS Origin token, “EQO,” will not be for sale and can only be earned through Diginex’s exchange. 

“We’re not doing this to raise capital,” said Richard Byworth, Diginex CEO. “We’re doing this actually to create incentives for people using our platform, to bring new users on to trade, and to also get people to hold balances on the platform and get rewards in staking.” 

The token can be earned in two ways: through trading on the Diginex platform and through staking. Users are given daily rewards for earning and staking that can be used toward reducing trading fees. 

“The daily reward block is a reward amount of these tokens in a bit of an homage to Bitcoin,” said Byworth. “We’re capping the amount of tokens that will ever exist to 21 million, and the daily rewards continue for two years, but every 19 blocks, the rewards are halved, so much like bitcoin again, you’ve got that halving schedule.” 

EQO is designed to increase Diginex exchange volume and balance. The current trading volume is between 10-20 million, but “rapidly growing,” said Byworth. 

The token launch comes amid a historic run for bitcoin. The largest digital currency rallied to more than $61,000, an all-time high, over the weekend. Investor interest in digital assets more broadly has increased over the past year. 

Many view bitcoin as a store of value, similar to gold, but Byworth said bitcoin is the better option. 

“You’re seeing a lot of inflows into bitcoin, and that’s starting to then propagate the flow more firmly, because once people start to see trends, then they hop on them,” said Byworth. “Anybody that can get comfortable with bitcoin, comfortable with how to manage it, and store it, is starting to say ‘this is probably the best way that I can store value.’”