The production of almost anything on earth, be it goods, machines, houses or even food, creates a carbon footprint.
Accordingly, trading in carbon credits has exploded over the last few years as the US, Europe and China try to meet their net zero targets by mid-century.
Hedge funds with trillions of dollars in assets under management have become interested in carbon credits, however, what are usually on offer are relatively old-fashioned financial products in illiquid and opaque markets.
Any company or project generating carbon offsets can use their proprietary MintCarbon.io platform to mint carbon credits into NFTs that can then be traded peer-to-peer directly on blockchain via an NFT marketplace like OpenSea, for instance, or in some other format.
Eric Entz, DeepMarkit’s Director of Corporate Development, explained further: “The platform helps carbon offset projects to reach buyers of their credits, and get their stories out there.
In March, it was announced that DeepMarkit was registered on Gold Standard and Verra – two of the world’s top carbon credit registries.
Retail buyers may be interested in the NFTs not only because of their carbon offset credentials and their potential upside as an investment, but also potentially as collector’s items depending on their artwork.
This latter group will be in the position to demonstrate their ESG credentials to their customers by being able to point to specific projects that have created the carbon offsets, on top of the benefit of the credits themselves.
“Right now, sustainability committees in corporations come up with the idea, and then it goes to the finance committee that says it wants to go net zero and this is what we are looking to do.
Instead of just writing a blank check just to claim they are net zero, Mintcarbon.io can provide an additional story about exactly how a company is getting to net zero,” Entz added.
DeepMarkit is also developing a function that will allow the bundling of different credits together to improve the utility of the product and increase the attractiveness of the credits to purchasers.
“We are an early mover in this space and we have a product that is solid,” said Mo Yang, CEO of DeepMarkit subsidiary First Carbon Corp.
As MintCarbon.io uses blockchain there is unlimited scalability to its project, with the scope to create thousands of separate NFTs backed by real, planet benefitting projects.
DeepMarkit is currently focused on the voluntary carbon market, whose value surpassed $1 billion for the first time in November 2021.
She also reported from the floor of the London Metals Exchange, and appeared on CNBC to discuss international metals markets.