Alt Investments
Diamond Standard Closes $30 Million Round; Eyes Rapid Growth

Diamonds are famously unique, which in the past has limited their appeal as commodities. But that may be starting to change as new technology takes hold. A firm operating in the space says it is pushing further toward transforming the investment story around diamonds.
Diamond
Standard, which has developed a “diamond commodity”
investment offering, this week said it has closed a $30 million
investment round.
The round was led by Left Lane Capital and Horizon Kinetics.
Additional participants in the round include Gaingels and
Republic.co.
The fundraising program came after the group launched the
Diamond Standard Fund, enabling investors to allocate to diamonds
through shares, rather than holding physical diamonds directly.
In the past, the specific qualities of diamonds – every one of
them is different – has tended to make it hard to treat them as
an homogenous asset class, such as gold. Diamond Standard is
using technology from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space to
drive development (see
an interview here).
In September 2021, the firm announced that it had new
headquarters on Fifth Avenue, New York – overlooking the
city’s diamond district and near the Gemological Institute of
America. Last year it also announced that agreements were in
place to develop diamond futures offered by MGEX™ via the CME
Globex® platform, and options via MIAX™.
Diamond Standard said that globally, the diamond sector is worth
$1.2 trillion – more than all the world’s silver and platinum
combined.
“Following 20 per cent returns last year, the Diamond Standard
Coin has continued to generate a positive return this year, while
the S&P 500 is down 14 per cent and bitcoin is down 50 per
cent. Investors need a new uncorrelated asset class, and this
capital will enable us to increase capacity and expand our
offerings,” Cormac Kinney, founder and CEO of Diamond Standard,
said.