22 Jul Kentucky Whiskey Fund – tokenizing whiskey investment on the Symbol Blockchain

This article was written by @AnaPikachu912 and is based on a nemedia article from @AI27982784

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More great news for Symbol!

Symbol has issued a security token for a Bourbon Fund in partnership with Wave Financial, a US investment advisory firm. The tokens, backed by the value of whiskey, will function as digital securities.

Whiskey as an investment

A rare Japanese whiskey, “Ichirose Malt Card Series” which is a set of 54 bottles was auctioned in Hong Kong for a whopping HK$11,890,360/ US$1,520,000! As the name suggests, each bottle was named after each card in a deck with each bottle carrying its own one-of-a-kind flavor.

Whiskey rarity and price increase with age. As whiskey gets older it both matures and improves but also becomes rarer since part of the total supply will be consumed by whiskey connoisseurs. These factors combine to make it an excellent investment opportunity.

In recent years, there is strong demand for quality whiskey. Sales in the U.S were up by 5.3% in 2019 increasing by $1.5 billion, reaching a new record of $29 billion. According to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2021 the value of rare whiskey has risen by 478% in the last 10 years. Whereas the value of classic cars rose by 193%, fine art by 71% and wine by 127%. This boom in sales prices and appreciation in value as whisky matures has opened up investment opportunities.

Launch of Kentucky Whiskey Digital Fund Token on Symbol Platform

Wave Financial has been working with Kentucky-based Wilderness Trail Distillery to launch a fund with up to 25,000 barrels of 2020-vintage bourbon, equating to a year’s worth of production. This fund allows investors to purchase asset-backed tokens linked to an estimated inventory of four million bottles of bourbon bottled each year.

The fund works as follows:

1. Wave Financial will buy a limited run Whiskey/Bourbon from Wilderness Trail Distillery
2. They sell tokenized shares of its fund to eligible investors
3. The product is aged at the distillery for a multi-year period
4. The product is sold on secondary markets after appreciating in value

In order to make the fund possible, the Symbol platform was selected. According to Benjamin Tsai, President & Fund Manager at WAVE Financial

When choosing a protocol partner that is essential for the issuance of digital securities, the Wave team focused on three things: transfer restrictions, lockup periods, and privacy. Symbol’s hybrid blockchain combines the strengths of both private and public blockchains, giving you the flexibility you need to issue digital securities.

After launching the fund, we continued to look for ways to implement this creative offering. Since NEM’s Symbol is intended to issue security tokens, its technological capabilities and state-of-the-art network basic structure made it ideal for our project.

Benjamin Tsai, President & Fund Manager at WAVE Financial

Future growth

Wave Financial has recently announced the upcoming launch of another Kentucky Whiskey Fund for 2021, again in collaboration with Wilderness Trail Distillery which specialises in boutique and high-end spirits.

The fund, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks, hopes to attract investors on the back of an impressive investment track record surrounding Whiskey/Bourbon.  Wave notes that these spirits can typically provide a 20% return through its fund over a 5-year span, with a strong resilience to economic downturns.

#Symbol パブリックチェーンを使った?ケンタッキーウイスキーファンド（Wilderness Trail蒸留所）が、今後数週間で開始される予定になったそうです‼️
ファンドへの投資家には今後5年間で20%くらいのリターンを想定してるそう（続https://t.co/pl3ofJqXes

— トレスト?オオカミ農園 (@TrendStream) June 12, 2021

Just a final note from me (@XHarvesting). I would like to thank @AnaPikachu912 again for providing this excellent article! I am going to have a look into this myself as it seems like an awesome opportunity and I like the idea of holding a token in my Symbol wallet that represents a barrel of bourbon!