Is uranium-backed crypto on the horizon?

Madison Metals, a junior mining company based in Toronto, Canada, is said to be exploring a launch of uranium-backed cryptocurrency after its NFT attempt fell short.

The company first tried to launch uranium-backed NFTs in April but had to postpone the project. Despite the setback, Madison’s CEO Duane Parnham said that a revised offering is fast approaching.

“We’re probably weeks away from making an official announcement. We’re that close,” Parnham told Mining Weekly in an article published Friday.

Parnham further explained that Madison’s development team will be able to list a token backed by futures contracts for the company’s uranium.

Essentially, Parnham said, this allows retail investors to get involved in commodities trading. 

“Other than buying uranium directly from a miner like Madison on a sales contract basis, the only other way ‘Joe Retail’ could play in uranium as a commodity was through either a participation agreement or through the purchase of futures,” Parnham said.

Madison Metals is a publicly traded company with a market cap of about $6 million. The projects it lists on its website are mining operations in Kenora, Canada, and Namibia. 

Tokenization of various assets has been getting a lot more attention as of late. Tokenized real estate and tokenized bank deposits are all the rage among traditional finance participants. Even a Picasso painting was brought onto the blockchain.

Updated Jul. 5, 2023 at 9:39 am ET: Changed headline and context to reflect that Madison aims to launch a fungible uranium futures-backed cryptocurrency, not NFTs.

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