Old Mutual Wealth and Inves Capital on Wednesday announced they will be pumping liquidity into ZARP, the cryptocurrency stablecoin that is pegged to the value of the South African rand.

The crypto token and supporting network will see “substantial liquidity” injected into it by the two companies. A monetary value wasn’t disclosed. The capital will also be used to promote ZARP’s use in decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols.

The treasury of rands that back the ZARP Stablecoin is already managed by Old Mutual Wealth and the relationship is now being extended to include liquidity funding,” said Simon Dingle, MD of Inves Capital and MD of the ZARP stablecoin project.

“We are now extending our relationship to explore new frontiers in DeFi and provide deep liquidity to emerging capital markets,” he said. “Crypto is entering a new phase of growth and ZARP is braced to play a central role in representing rand value in these exciting new protocols.”

Dingle said improved regulatory clarity in South Africa has allowed new business opportunities for crypto asset service providers, and that stablecoins are the “beating heart of this new financial system”.

“ZARP gives the rand superpowers, upgrading it to be compatible with the new world of programmable money and enabling new use cases that redefine markets and improve financial inclusion,” he added.

ZARP treasury

Old Mutual Wealth MD Farhad Sader said: “In 2022, we partnered with Inves Capital to manage the ZARP treasury because we viewed it as an opportunity to participate in a project that was pushing the boundaries of innovation. It was always our intention to extend the partnership, and that is exactly what we are doing now, because we have seen the potential application of the technology first-hand.”

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ZARP is a fully collateralised stablecoin, meaning that for every ZARP token issued on the blockchain, there is at least one rand held in its treasury reserves and managed by Old Mutual Wealth. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media