There’s a new player in the carbon credits space: the Nasdaq.

‍What’s happening:‍

• The Nasdaq Exchange has launched a new technology which will digitize carbon credits and accelerate institutional access to trading carbon credits globally
  
• Nasdaq has partnered with Puro Earth to act as the registry agent to track the issuance, retirement and transfer of carbon credits that will be made available to trade on their new platform
  

Why it matters:‍

• Carbon credits have recently seen a surge in new institutional participants, most notably with Barclays recently launching a new trading desk
  
• There has also been a tumultuous history with carbon credit verification and numerous fraudulent low quality carbon credits that were sold without proper certification in place
  

Going deeper:‍

• The new trading capabilities from Nasdaq is underpinned by smart contract technology and can be placed on a centralized database or use a private blockchain
  
• Nasdaq is aiming to increase global liquidity in the carbon credit markets which has typically relied on numerous intermediaries and a lack of standardized processes that were widely accepted

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