Icecap, LLC, the first company to offer diamonds via NFT “token” technology, has moved its headquarters to Dubai within DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Center) and has launched a line of high-end diamond and jewelry collectibles. The tokenized “Icecap Collectibles” will include very high-end, natural diamonds in red, yellow, green and other colors, plus unique finished jewelry pieces. A US$3 million red diamond is included in the first offering. The announcement came during the Company’s prestigious launch event held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Dubai International Financial Center.
Non-Fungible Token (“NFT”) technology, gained worldwide attention in March when an NFT representing ownership of a piece of digital art was sold by Christie’s for $69 million. NFTs are blockchain-based “tokens” which document ownership of real world or virtual world assets. As blockchain tokens, once sold they can move efficiently between buyers/sellers for trading purposes, on NFT exchanges.
“NFT technology has opened up diamonds as an asset class for diversification,” explained Jacques Voorhees, CEO Icecap. “Diamonds typically out-perform inflation, but now—with NFT technology—diamonds can be bought, sold, and traded almost as efficiently as gold and silver. Thanks to NFTs, we might say the world’s hardest asset is now liquid.”
Icecap is the brainchild of the father/son team of Jacques Voorhees, who revolutionized the diamond industry in the 1980’s by introducing online trading technology via Polygon, and Erik Voorhees, the well-known bitcoin advocate and founder of ShapeShift.
“Interest in diamonds as an investment goes back over a thousand years,” continued Voorhees. “But diamonds are not fungible—each one is unique. The technology of non-fungible tokens now makes it easy to trade this asset class without the friction of having to track the physical product itself—which is kept secure, vaulted, and insured.”
Icecap’s diamond tokens are traded on the world’s largest NFT exchange, OpenSea.io. A buyer can hold the token as a hard-asset for diversification or for collecting, sell the token to liquidate, or redeem the token and take delivery of the physical diamond itself—which can later be re-tokenized if desired.
Icecap’s relocation from the United States to Dubai was an easy one, according to Voorhees. “In the last twelve months, Dubai has become the primary trading center for diamonds, globally. And the UAE is a world leader in having a stable and well-evolved regulatory framework for the trading of blockchain assets. Dubai in general and the DMCC free-zone in particular, is a natural home for a company that combines diamonds with NFT trading.”
