Zimbabwe Introduces New Digital Currency Backed With Gold

On Oct. 5, Zimbabwe introduced a new digital money called Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), announced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). This special digital money is special because it's backed by real gold!

In April 2023, the RBZ first told people about this project. Every digital coin, or ZiG, equals a certain amount of real gold that the bank keeps safe. RBZ also made physical gold tokens last year, and people liked using them.

The idea behind ZiG and the physical gold coins is to encourage Zimbabwe people to invest their money in their own country’s assets instead of American dollars, which is a tough job due to the country's very high inflation. RBZ Governor, Dr. John Mangudya said that ZiG is meant to preserve the value of money and make investments easy and accessible for everyone. People can keep their ZiG in digital wallets or special cards and use them in different kinds of transactions.

Different amounts of ZiG can be bought at different prices, depending on how much gold is in the bank. For example, 1 ounce of ZiG costs $1,910, and 0.1 ounce is $191. As of Sept. 28, people bought ZiG equal to 17.65 kg of gold using both Zimbabwean and American dollars, making the total gold sold in ZiG about 350 kg so far.

Zimbabwe has struggled with money problems and high inflation for many years. In 2009, they started using the U.S. dollar because their own money lost too much value. They tried using their own money again in 2019, but faced more money troubles. This new gold-backed digital money is their latest idea to try and stabilize things.