CEX.IO Spotlight: Aurus (AWX, AWG, AWS)

Key information (June 29, 2022) 

• Circulating Supply — AWX: 2,797,991 / AWG: 41,716 / AWS: 732,127.58 
• Total supply — AWX: 30,000,000 / AWG: 41,716 / AWS: 732,127.58  
• Sector — DeFi, Precious Metals
• Token Type — ERC20
• Token Usage — AWX: Governance, Voting, Fees / AWG: Digital Gold / AWS: Digital Silver
• Consensus Algorithm — Currently Ethereum Proof of Work (PoW)  
• Foundation date — 2018
• All-time high — AWX: $5.77 / AWG: $70.15 / AWS: $0.98 
• ATH Date — AWX: 04/10/2021 / AWG: 03/30/2021 / AWS: 03/23/2022
• Market Cap — AWX: $2,675,276 / AWG: $2,549,710 / AWS: $519,811

What is Aurus?

Aurus stands out in an overcrowded cryptocurrency market. First launched in 2018, this platform is singular in their focus of turning precious metals into cryptocurrency. Essentially, Aurus represents tokenization as a service. The company works together with large holders of gold, silver, and platinum bullion and transforms these physical assets into cryptocurrency, while simultaneously opening access to this market to everyone. 

Aurus works in conjunction with several participants in the precious metals industry. Brokers, vaults, and refineries are brought together in one international ecosystem and work in tandem to mint new Aurus tokens. Gold, silver, and platinum resources are transported into the modern age with blockchain technology. This allows these historically significant elements to gain the benefits of blockchain technology, namely efficient transactions, and an ease of access. 

The problems with precious metals

Historically, commodities like gold and silver have always been valued. They represented luxury, royalty, and immense wealth. However, physical precious metals have drawbacks and challenges that become a barrier for the average person. Of course, they are substantially heavy, with proper transportation and storage being costly affairs. They are also illiquid, and selling these assets is not as simple as you may imagine. Transferring large amounts of these assets internationally is also a strenuous and convoluted process. 

What Aurus provides is an opportunity for financially conscious people to branch out into precious metals in a way that is direct, efficient, and has comparatively high liquidity. You may benefit from safe havens like gold and silver, while leveraging the power of blockchain technology. 

Aurus tokens are accessible by anyone, and are simple to transfer globally. You also receive the storage solution of a professional vault service with zero commitment or recurring costs. While fiat currencies may never return to the gold standard, there is no reason that interested parties can’t allocate a responsible amount of their portfolio to these safe haven assets. 

Source: Manhattan Gold & Silver

When we review the infographic above, it’s clear to see that although gold and precious metals may come in different forms, they all still face serious limitations. Tokenization of these assets manifests an advantageous investment vehicle that comes without the responsibility of holding the actual physical metals. 

Aurus offers several distinct tokens

While gold is often the main focus of precious metals investors, silver and platinum are also prominent. Aurus has launched several types of tokens to meet the demands of these investors. Currently they offer three tokens that are backed by these commodities, as well as one token that represents the overall ecosystem and network that they have created. All of these are Ethereum erc20 tokens, transferable on both the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. 

AurusDeFi (AWX): 

Aurus is a company that exists in the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) space. As such, the AWX token has an important role in the ecosystem that Aurus has created. Not only does it reward holders with transaction fees from the sale of Aurus’ other tokens, but it is also used for voting and governance purposes. AWX is traded on the open market, and it is limited to the 30,000,000 created tokens that currently exist. 

AurusGOLD (AWG):

The AWG token represents digital gold. These tokens are minted as digital representations of real gold in storage. 

AurusSILVER (AWS):

The AWS token represents digital silver in the same way.

AurusPLATINUM (AWP): 

The AWP token represents digital platinum. AWP is not yet listed on the public market but is planned for sometime later in 2022.

Furthermore, each AWG, AWS, and AWP token are all backed by one gram of their respective commodity. This also means that the value of these tokens fluctuates in tune with the precious metals market. In addition, each token is, in fact, redeemable for one gram of the physical metal it represents. 

As they are cryptocurrencies, these tokens are also divisible to the smallest fraction of a token. While most gold dealers will only allow you to purchase full gold bars or coins, these tokens enable you to buy whatever amount you want. This is ideal for dollar-cost-averaging over time. 

How does Aurus work?

Aurus has built a substantial multinational network of precious metals companies. From the beginning, Aurus understood that they would have more success working together with these businesses, instead of competing against them. In this symbiotic relationship, they bring the crypto infrastructure and network necessary to tokenize their gold, silver, and platinum reserves. 

To incentivize participation in this system, Aurus offers these companies a part of a lucrative revenue-sharing program. Providers of these precious metals receive a share of the fees generated from the use of their AWG, AWS, and AWP tokens. 

AWG: 

50% of all fees generated from this token go to AWX token holders, the remaining 50% is split evenly between the gold provider and vault storage provider. 

AWS / AWP: 

30% of all fees generated from these tokens go to AWX token holders, the remaining 70% is split evenly between the asset provider and vault storage provider.

Source: Aurus

This is a fascinating business model, and one that requires immense trust. For this reason, Aurus only partners with businesses that meet the standards of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), a global authority. All associated vaults are fully insured and regularly audited, and are located across numerous countries like Switzerland, the U.K., Canada, Turkey and Singapore.

How new tokens are minted 

The token creation process must be handled in a bureaucratic and careful manner to ensure the continued transparency and legitimacy of the Aurus ecosystem. Only Aurus’ approved bullion providers can initiate the process with a formal token issue request. Before the token creation process can begin, Aurus requires the necessary paperwork to be filled. 

First, proof of ownership, and purity, of the precious metals must be established. Documents are provided that demonstrate these details, and they are both timestamped and recorded on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) blockchain. These documents are publicly available to all interested parties for transparency purposes. Once accepted, the vault storage partner will confirm these details and sign the token issue request to begin the actual creation journey.

When it comes time to mint new tokens, a three step process is followed: 

1. An agreement between Aurus and the precious metals provider is signed. The bullion is set aside and sent to a partner vault where it is audited and stored.
2. After checking and storing the bullion, the details are recorded and reported to the Aurus network.
3. New tokens are then created from the precious metals and issued to the provider. They are now eligible to be distributed on the open market. 

Source: Aurus

Token Burning

Aurus tokens are also destroyed once the physical tokens are redeemed for the corresponding precious metals. Therefore, the amount of tokens in existence could potentially fluctuate. Of course, this is a positive feature that ensures that these tokens stay pegged to the amount of precious metals that are stored in vaults. Otherwise, inflation of these tokens would ensue.

Source: Aurus

The future outlook for Aurus

Aurus is beginning to gain momentum in the cryptocurrency industry. With more promising features on the horizon, it would seem that Aurus is in a good position to grow as a company and capitalize on the evolving priorities of the overall investing market. 

You can imagine that financial market spectators may be interested in Aurus tokens for the same reasons they may be interested in physical precious metals. Over the past decade, we have watched as countries like Venezuela, Turkey, Sierra Leone, and others entered troubling times of immense currency inflation and economic downturn. It has been widely reported that some citizens in these countries turned to crypto to protect their life savings.

As these same economic concerns spread globally, more financially conscious people may potentially turn to cryptocurrency as a solution. Aurus stands to benefit from this demographic, as well as others that are interested in rounding out their portfolios with precious metals. 

Looking ahead on the Aurus roadmap, we can see there are some intriguing developments that are planned for the remainder of 2022 and beyond. 

Aurus plans to:

• Release their AWP token for public trading soon
• Launch the Aurus governance organization
• Allow physical precious metals redemption via their mobile app
• Launch a DeFi lending platform
• Expand their tokenization services to the mining industry
• Sign new metaverse partnerships

And much more!

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