Carbon market veteran to launch mobile app for retail investors
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - A new trading platform headed by a carbon market veteran is launching a mobile app to allow individual investors to participate in the market by buying, selling and trading credits.
Testing for the app by US-based Crbn.trade launches Tuesday and aims to encourage retail individual participants to buy into the carbon market like in the equities market.
"Retail participation in equities helps to drive the market and is a massive component of liquidity," said Rene Velasquez, chief executive and founder of Crbn.trade.
"As investors have become more sophisticated, they're more active. That liquidity helps not only in price discovery, but it helps market participants enter and exit at will," he said.
Trading in the carbon market is typically dominated by large trading houses, banks and big corporate buyers that operate over-the-counter or on large regulated exchanges.
Velasquez is also a managing partner at Valitera, a carbon market intermediary that launched last year and has already established a significant client book.
Tokenisation
In 2021, a wave of small buyers pooled together their resources and bought millions of tonnes of CO2 equivalent of carbon credits via the Klima DAO blockchain platform, proving that so-called "retail investors" can show an interest in the carbon market.
However, so-called 'tokenisation' of carbon credits using blockchain technology was quickly banned by major carbon registries afterwards, putting a dampener on the practice.
"Think of it like the Robin Hood equivalent, but for carbon markets," said Velasquez, describing the mobile application.
"The intention is to democratise access and participation to carbon markets," he said.
Velasquez added that there were significant barriers to entry for individual investors looking to enter the market with the complicated 'Know Your Customer' process and lack of tokenisation options.
"Equipped with the financial tools to accelerate a climate-resilient future at Crbn.trade, investors can grow their wealth and advance a sustainable world all at once," said Velasquez.
The app does not go live on Tuesday but will allow interested participants to register interest for that app's beta testing on March 5, at the following link.
The company closed a seed funding round a few months ago and is now gearing up for Series A funding.
Before founding Valitera and Crbn.trade, Velasquez worked at CBL, part of the Xpansiv group, where he helped create the industry's first standardised offset contracts, the Global Emissions Offset and the Nature-based Global Emissions Offset.
