Concept: Singapore’s startup AirCarbon has launched AirCarbon Exchange, a central marketplace for the trading of carbon credits using AirCarbon Token. It leverages blockchain architecture to create securitized carbon credits.

Nature of Disruption: AirCarbon Exchange creates a hybrid, decentralized platform, mirroring the commodity markets. It simplifies and automates manual processes associated with OTC (over-the-counter) carbon trading. The platform enables users to trade and settle leveraging smart contracts to create a clear and immutable record in the system. It aims to provide users access to the asset class as opposed to individual projects. AirCarbon Token is backed by a 1 tCO2e carbon credit and securitizes carbon credits into fungible and tradable securities with transparent pricing and real-time settlement. The platform tokenizes carbon offsets into fungible carbon asset classes such as AirCarbon CORSIA Eligible Tokens (CET), AirCarbon Global Nature Token (GNT), AirCarbon Global Nature+ Token (GNT+), AirCarbon Sustainable Development Token (SDT), and AirCarbon Renewable Energy Token (RET). Its client base includes carbon project developers, financial traders, corporate entities, and other industry stakeholders.

Outlook: Blockchain can offer a distributed and borderless solution facilitating trading and settlement of commodities globally and instantly. AirCarbon Exchange aims to eliminate market friction in a carbon-constrained economy by applying traditional commodity exchange architecture to carbon credit and securitizing it into tradable carbon asset classes. It provides a new approach to securitized token trade as a commodities market of the future where users can tokenize commodities and collateral. Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro is working with AirCarbon Exchange to establish a voluntary carbon credit marketplace in Brazil. It collaborates with the Brazil Carbon Marketplace (BCM), ‘BlockC’, and Rio’s Economic, Development and Innovation Department to enable trading of carbon credits listed on the BCM on AirCarbon Exchange’s other platforms. AirCarbon Exchange has raised a total of $3.6M from its Series A funding round in 2021.

This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk