DeepMarkit Corp., (“DeepMarkit” or the “Company”) (TSXV: MKT) (OTC: MKTDF) (FRA: DEP), a company focused on transitioning the global carbon offset market to the more accessible digital economy by minting carbon offsets onto the blockchain, is pleased to provide an industry and corporate update. Amidst the backdrop of several significant events recently occurring in the carbon offset industry, the DeepMarkit management team is providing the following update to keep current and future shareholders, as well as the media, informed about its unique competitive position in a growing asset class.
Industry Developments
Recent milestones in the carbon industry include but are not limited to:
- Blackstone’s investing $400 million in Xpansiv – the leading global carbon and environmental commodities exchange platform1;
- BMO purchasing Radicle Group – a leading carbon offset developer with over 130 employees and over 4,000 clients globally2;
- CPP Investments, with a fund value of $523 Billion (as of June 30, 2022), adding an “Investing in the Potential of Carbon Credits” section to the homepage of its website3; and
- Norton Rose Fulbright publishing its “Draft Core Carbon Principles for the Voluntary Carbon Market” as a large, global law firm4.
Additionally, Bloomberg News reported that “a record US$1.4 billion poured into climate and carbon-focused startups in the second quarter of this year” in an article published on August 17, 2022. The flow of capital is being driven by corporate and government pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and around the world. As such, the DeepMarkit team is encouraged by the current industry environment and its updated strategy plan.
DeepMarkit’s overall plan is based on combining the growth of the informal carbon offset market with the maturation of blockchain technology. The chance to make carbon offsets the first tangible asset class to adopt blockchain as its backbone is enticing and valuable.
By leveraging the secure and transparent blockchain, the Company has created and launched MintCarbon.io to offer a simple onboarding process and other innovations to users in the voluntary carbon market for them to enjoy as a way to access carbon offsets. DeepMarkit’s user-focused service seeks to ensure that carbon offsets that are onboarded are only of the highest quality and have passed rigorous third-party checks.
DeepMarkit’s platform allows for a compelling way to work with carbon offset generating companies and projects to bring their story to the blockchain. It assists in adding a qualitative layer to the various projects and embed additional data relative to an ERC-20 token standard.
MintCarbon.io is intended to be collaborative and to add an additional way of distribution for projects and carbon offset brokers. Although there are several firms looking to tokenize assets, The platform’s focus is to add the story of the project and embed project data within the token allowing for a more robust, project-friendly offering.
A key initiative among global efforts to fight climate change, the voluntary carbon offset markets (“VCM“) allow companies around the world to reduce and remove CO2 emissions over and above what would otherwise be possible. The size of the VCM has grown rapidly in recent years with the value of global voluntary carbon markets nearly quadrupling in 2021 towards US$2 billion driven by nearly 500 million offsets traded.
Prices climbed in 2021 by nearly 60% over 2020 to a point not seen since 2013, reaching an annual global weighted average price per ton of $4.00 for all transactions reported by Ecosystem Marketplace respondents, compared with $2.52 in 20206. Looking ahead, the rise in corporate net zero pledges (particularly from firms in carbon intensive sectors) should underpin demand and support expansion in VCMs growth in years to come.
- The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, First Carbon Corp., has received a Security Assessment Certificate from Quantstamp, Inc. In order to receive the Certificate, Quantstamp evaluated and passed security-related issues, code quality and adherence to specifications and best practices related to the MintCarbon.io platform’s smart contracts. The Company complied with Quantstamp’s iterative audit process to rigorously review and test the MintCarbon.io platform’s blockchain-based smart contracts. Quantstamp performed the security assessment of the platform’s codebase and FCC incorporated feedback and recommendations from Quantstamp to complete the audit and receive the Certificate. All audited smart contracts are now ready to be deployed on the MintCarbon.io platform.
- The Company achieved the commercial launch of its proprietary MintCarbon.io platform and received its first purchase order which came from WILL Solutions Inc. (“WILL“) which is a Quebec, Canada based leader in community-based greenhouse gas reduction solutions. Subject to the satisfactory verification of WILL’s carbon offsets, WILL will be allow-listed to mint up to 150,000 tokens, representing 150,000 tons of GHGs, via DeepMarkit’s MintCarbon.io platform.
- The Company signed a letter of intent with Bloom X Alliance Inc. to form a referral arrangement. Pursuant to the key terms in the LOI, DeepMarkit and BloomX are working to form the Arrangement through which BloomX will introduce and onboard carbon offset projects onto the blockchain through DeepMarkit’s proprietary minting platform, MintCarbon.io. Based in Japan, BloomX is a blockchain-based products and services company seeking to reduce cost and improve efficiency of international asset transfers. It looks to participate and invest in blockchain-based products and services as well as other technology-enabled and related growth opportunities.
“Our leading MintCarbon.io platform is secure, easy to use and remains unrivaled in the industry so far. On that basis, and given growing interest in this new asset class, I expect material growth in the number of carbon offsets to be minted into tokens via MintCarbon.io over the next year,” said Ranjeet Sundher, Chief Executive Officer of DeepMarkit. “Blackrock, BMO CPP Investments and Norton Rose Fulbright are only but a few of the major players that are drawing attention to the carbon markets. Making it easier for people and companies to access carbon offsets to improve the environment is the ultimate goal,” added Mr. Sundher.
