Move over GameStop, carbon trading will hit the retail trading scene soon
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I first reached out to Rene Velasquez, former head of carbon at environmental commodities exchange CBL, for insights on what happened the first time retail traders got access to the voluntary carbon market.
It ended badly, with Verra, the world’s largest carbon standard and registry, banning crypto company Toucan from tokenizing retired carbon credits in May 2022.
But the brief carbon-crypto affair proved to the world that there was appetite among retail traders for carbon credits. More importantly, that could provide new funding opportunities and liquidity for the voluntary carbon market, which, if deployed correctly, addresses deforestation and climate change concerns.
Velasquez is now working on a “Robin Hood for the carbon market”, a blockchain-based platform for retail investors to trade carbon credits. He shared some insights during the ReFi Singapore meetup on 19 March on what went on behind the scenes during the Toucan/KlimaDAO/Verra kerfuffle, and what lies ahead as the voluntary carbon market braces for disruption.
Read the highlights on Medium here.
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