DODAQ Launches Online Diamond Exchange

An online diamond exchange that will enable polished diamonds to be globally traded like other commodities was launched in Antwerp Tuesday. The exchange, DODAQ (www.dodaq.com), offers two-way auctions for polished diamonds.

According to DODAQ (Dealers Organisation for Diamond Automated Quotes), these auctions create real time spot prices and cash market for polished diamonds. “The two-way auction mechanism provides price transparency to eliminate the mystery of diamond pricing and allows the market to decide fair value, just as markets for stocks, currencies and other commodities are determined,” the firm said in a release.

The exchange is open outside of the industry, “enabling diamonds to be realized for the first time as an asset class, and an alternative investment opportunity to gold.”

Funds are held by ABN AMRO Bank and DODAQ offers instantaneous settlement. “For us to guarantee settlement, we need to be satisfied that the diamond is real and this is achieved through certification,” CEO Simon Okuniew said.

“The system calls for the original certificate which will then be checked to verify that the certificate and diamond match. They are then sealed so that at no stage can they be handled. The diamonds are then sent to our specialist vault in the Freeport of Geneva which is run by our professional custodian Malca-Amit, one of the most respected security and storage operators in the world with a 21-year proven track record,” Okuniew added about the workings of their system.

“By standardizing diamonds we are realistically able to call them a commodity and therefore trade them as such. All global markets are traded electronically so the logical next step was to create a fully automated electronic exchange for diamonds,” Okuniew said.

DODAQ is currently offering online webinars about the trading platform.