An online electronic diamond exchange was launched today in Antwerp by the Dealers Organisation for Diamond Automated Quotes. The exchange will enable polished diamonds to be globally traded like other commodities, according to its founders.

The trading platform at www.exchange.dodaq.com offers two-way auctions for individual categories of polished diamonds, thus creating real time spot prices and the first cash market for diamonds, DODAQ said in a statement. The two-way auction mechanism provides price transparency, allowing the market to decide fair value, just as markets for stocks, currencies, and other commodities are determined.

DODAQ is open to anyone within or outside of industry, “enabling diamonds to be realized for the first time as an asset class, and an alternative investment opportunity to gold,” the statement read. It provides both a liquid entry and resale point for investors representing a revolutionary step in the evolution of the global diamond industry.

All client funds are held by ABN AMRO Bank and DODAQ offers instantaneous settlement, steering the industry away from the current reliance on credit.

“DODAQ is a cash market,” said Simon Okuniew, chief executive officer of the exchange. “For us to guarantee settlement we need to be satisfied that the diamond is real and this is achieved through certification. 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.”

JCK