The founder of a gold-backed cryptocurrency breaks down why now is the perfect time for investors to buy stablecoins

• Thomas Coughlin founded the stablecoins Kinesis gold and Kinesis silver.
• He told Insider that he sees bitcoin as “too volatile” to function as a digital store of value.
• Coughlin warned that excessive quantitative easing could drive a return to 1970s-style stagflation.

Thomas Coughlin has lofty goals for his gold- and silver-backed cryptocurrencies.

“We’re building out a digital economy with the old-world tried-and-tested value of gold,” the Australian entrepreneur told Insider in an interview this week. “Gold has lasted the test of time, and I’d argue it’s still the universal currency.”

Coughlin is the chief executive of Kinesis, a stablecoin-based monetary system. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency pegged to a reserve asset. Unlike the prominent stablecoins Tether and USDC, which are pegged to the dollar, Kinesis’ coins are backed 1:1 by either a gram of gold, or an ounce of silver.