VIDEO — Chris Dessi: US$1.2 Trillion Diamond Market Ripe for Unlocking, Here's How to Do It

Chris Dessi: US$1.2 Trillion Diamond Market Ripe for Unlockingyoutu.be

The diamond market is worth an impressive US$1.2 trillion, but remains relatively untouched by investors.

Speaking to the Investing News Network (INN) at the recent Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC), Chris Dessi, chief revenue officer at Diamond Standard, explained how the company is looking to change that.

"Of the US$1.2 trillion worth of diamonds, less than 1 percent is held as an investment," he explained. "We've effectively unlocked that by creating the diamond standard — the literal diamond standard."

Diamond Standard has developed regulator-approved physical bars and coins that contain equivalent sets of diamonds and are each backed by a blockchain token. The firm also launched a fund in May, and is exploring other avenues to give investors exposure to the industry, including exchange-traded funds and a futures contract.

"These are all things that are planned as a suite of services, investment vehicles," said Dessi. "The way we like to look at it is it's almost like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) — all of these different investment vehicles that are communicating with each other that are just part of the roadmap of us unlocking that US$1.2 trillion market."

Cormac Kinney, founder and CEO of Diamond Standard, previously explained to INN that he expects the company's products to boost investors' diamond holdings to about 15 percent of the market, up from the current 1 percent. Reiterating that goal, Dessi commented, "It's about a US$200 billion green pasture in front of us."

Watch the interview above for more from Dessi. You can also click here for our full VRIC playlist on YouTube.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.