‘Dr. Doom’ Nouriel Roubini to Launch Tokenized Dollar Replacement — With Payment and ESG Features

Economist Nouriel Roubini, a crypto skeptic known as “Dr. Doom,” is developing a tokenized asset intended to be a more resilient U.S. dollar. “Our goal is to create a global store of value … This is something akin to a substitute for Treasuries, or a digital asset that has payment features in it.”

Economist Nouriel Roubini revealed this week that he is developing a suite of financial products, including a tokenized asset, called the United Sovereign Governance Gold Optimized Dollar (USG), to act as a more resilient dollar against high inflation, climate change, and civil unrest, Bloomberg reported.

Roubini is a longtime crypto skeptic who called bitcoin “the mother of all bubbles.” He teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business and has his own economic consulting firm called Roubini Macro Associates. Famed for predicting the housing bubble crash of 2007-2008, his gloomy predictions have earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom” in the media.

Dr. Doom is working with a Dubai-based real estate investment and management firm, Atlas Capital Team, to create the new products. He joined the company two years ago and is currently its chief economist.

Roubini explained that the dollar could be in jeopardy as the U.S. “prints too much money and adversaries start de-dollarizing.” He detailed:

We recognize that America’s dollar reserve currency could be at risk and are working to create a new instrument that’s effectively a more resilient dollar.

His plan came as a surprise to the crypto community since he has been one of Bitcoin’s most vocal critics for many years.

Roubini also elaborated on his plan on Twitter Monday. “The digital rail will have super strict AML/KYC features so it will be a digital asset-backed security with serious ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] features — ie sustainable real estate. So the digital option is only one of the three and it is an end point not a starting point,” he tweeted.

The economist further detailed:

First, USG starts as a hedge against inflation, debasement of fiat currencies, financial crisis, political and geopolitical risk and environmental risks. That is the core idea not its digital rail.

He added: “Second, the implementation of USG is first an index on which you can write TRS [total return swap], then a fund or ETF [exchange-traded fund]. And then finally and eventually as a security token backed not by vaporware like most junk in crypto but rather real/financial assets so you know at all times its market value/NAV.”

The new dollar would be backed by “a mix of short-term U.S. Treasuries, gold, and U.S. property (in the form of real estate investment trusts, or REITs),” the economist noted, adding that they are likely to be less affected by climate change.

Atlas co-founder and CEO Reza Bundy opined:

Our goal is to create a global store of value … This is something akin to a substitute for Treasuries, or a digital asset that has payment features in it.

Roubini expects his new product to appeal to large investors who are looking for an alternative to the usual mix of stocks and bonds. He noted that sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and even central banks that hold large reserves of dollar-denominated assets may be interested.

What do you think about Roubini’s tokenized dollar alternative project? Let us know in the comments section below.