Economist Nouriel Roubini to Oversee Development of Tokenized Dollar Alternatives

Economist and cryptocurrency commentator Nouriel Roubini is leading the development of a tokenized asset to counter fears of severe economic stagnation and inflation.

Roubini has long been skeptical of the cryptocurrency space, which makes his foray into the world of digital financial instruments interesting. Roubini, co-founder and chief economist at Dubai-based investment firm Atlas Capital Team LP, is helping to launch a series of financial instruments that will launch a security token as a "more resilient dollar."

As initially reported by Bloomberg, Atlas Capital CEO Reza Bundy and Roubini outlined the company’s initial plans for the new product, largely driven by the current state of the global economy.

The Dubai-based company will partner with Web3 developer Mysten Labs, which will be responsible for building the technology behind the United Sovereign Governance Gold Optimized Dollar (USG).

In a tweet on May 9, Roubini highlighted that USG will serve as a traditional index, offering total return swaps to primary investors. Atlas hopes to expand this offering to exchange-traded funds before transitioning to a tokenized version.

According to reports, USG will be backed by real-world assets, including short-term U.S. Treasuries, gold and real estate investment trusts. The offering is aimed at major investors such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and possibly central banks holding dollar-backed assets.

In an op-ed published in The Guardian in early May, Roubini highlighted the current global socioeconomic environment and its pressure on the dollar, which has long been the world’s reserve currency.

Roubini outlined an unintended consequence of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. As the central tool for global sanctions enforcement, the dollar will inevitably weaken itself over time. He said:

"Not only does it create serious friction in international trade in goods, services, and capital; it encourages U.S. competitors to diversify their foreign exchange reserves away from dollar-denominated assets."

According to Roubini, this could significantly weaken the dollar and accelerate the establishment of a regional monetary system. As such, they will introduce "a new instrument, in effect a more resilient dollar".

Atlas outlined USG’s launch plans and made some negative comments about the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything — only vaporware — and provide neither income nor other utility services; so they are purely speculative asset bubbles, its statement said.

Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.