In the world of cryptocurrency, there has always been a keen interest in physical objects. Whether they are coins, paper wallets, keychains, or anything else in tangible form, crypto-related merchandise and collectibles always do quite well. In the case of IOTA, a Kickstarter project was organized to mint physical coins. Surprisingly, this crowdfunding campaign has been fully funded, even though it still has nearly four weeks to go.

A Physical IOTA Coin is Coming

Although most people may not necessarily see the benefit in a physical minted coin representing a popular cryptocurrency, they actually have many advantages. The first reason is that there’s usually only a small amount of physical coins available. As a result, minted physical coins representing any popular cryptocurrency will always be extremely collectible. While they may not necessarily appreciate in value over time, they hardly ever lose their value.

A secondary reason to pay attention to these minted coins is that they make for excellent gifts. Considering that people often want to introduce family members and acquaintances to cryptocurrency at some point, having a visual representation of a coin certainly makes a lot of sense. While their value is still not tangible in most cases, they certainly help people understand the concept of cryptocurrency a lot better. Again, not everyone will like physical coins by default, but they’re always nice to have.

One IOTA community member took it upon himself to explore the concept of minting physical IOTA coins. That has not been done by anyone else, and it doesn’t appear as if there was a big demand for them. Surprisingly, the Kickstarter campaign associated with these physical IOTA coins has been highly successful, as it raised around US$9,000 to start mining and issuing physical IOTA coins to campaign backers. After all, physically creating such coins is not cheap.

Although there are still nearly four weeks remaining in this Kickstarter campaign, its funding goal has been reached already. At the time of writing, 610 people had backed this campaign and contributed a total of almost US$16,000. This goes to show there is genuine interest in owning a physical IOTA coin. This overwhelming success is far beyond what most people had expected, but it’s also a positive sign for the future of IOTA in general.

The design of this physical IOTA coin is pretty interesting as well. Although the final design may differ a bit from the image shown on the Kickstarter page, the front of the coin currently features an “engraved” circuit board. It is 2 inches in diameter, and it will feature two tones of gold and silver. It is a pretty coin, and it’s remarkable that it can be purchased on Kickstarter for as little as US$10. That is pretty cheap for a physical cryptocurrency, as most physical Bitcoins go for at least five times that, or even more.

For the time being, it remains to be seen if the production of this IOTA coin will hit any snags. After all, there are always risks associated with backing any Kickstarter project, especially one that involves minting physical coins. It does seem the campaign’s creator will refund users if there are problems with the production or distribution of this IOTA coin. That in itself is pretty interesting, to say the least. Initiatives like these may help put IOTA on the map for many people, although it is unclear how successful such a venture will be in the end.