London-based Saga first revealed itself in 2018, securing $30 million in seed funding and boasting an impressive array of advisory board members, including Jacob Frenkel, chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, and Professor Myron Scholes, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences.

The Saga token (SGA) is designed to allow "global citizens" to store and move value without friction across borders.

The outfit stresses that it wants to complement, not replace existing national currencies, working in collaboration with banks and regulators to act as a bridge that will bring digital currencies into the mainstream.

SGA wants to replicate the mechanics of central bank national currencies and apply them on a global scale. The currency is governed by its holders, who can vote for the executive council managing the project. SGA is also backed by a reserve of assets, which act as a stabilising mechanism to reduce volatility and holders have to undergo online KYC checks.

The key feature of the Saga monetary model is a blockchain-based, liquidity provider: a smart contract that adjusts the supply of tokens to meet market demand, and to limit the impact of fluctuations in market confidence on SGA price. The proceeds of issuing new SGA tokens are kept in a reserve, held in regulated banks and stored in liquid assets that replicate the currency composition of the SDR.

Ido Sadeh Man, founder, Saga, says: “Currencies have not kept up with the pace of globalisation and they do not address the global scope and needs of modern lives. The decreasing economic importance of national boundaries, changes in society, and a need for monetary diversification have created a necessity for a complementary, global, non-governmental currency.

"We have set out to address this need by launching the first stabilised, digital currency governed by its holders and compliant with AML regulations.”