Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) has announced the formal launch of The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem with the first live transactions on the blockchain-based platform which enables institutional buyers to digitally access carbon credits from leading project developers.
The official live transactions were initiated by Water Recovery Systems IP Limited and CUT Carbon Distributed Technologies AG, which “sold carbon credits to institutional buyers for retirement.”
The live transactions follow Northern Trust’s successful milestone of “completing fully automated transactions on the initial minimum viable product, announced in September 2023.”
The ecosystem is powered by Northern Trust’s digital assets platform, Northern Trust Matrix Zenith, to “connect institutional buyers with project developers focused on climate solutions to avoid, reduce, or remove greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
Supported by private ledger digital blockchain technology, buyers can “purchase digital carbon credits directly from project developers and retire these against their emissions footprint.”
Northern Trust acts on instruction to “record, transfer and settle digital carbon credits in its capacity as the designated custodian.”
Northern Trust is working with a number “of project developers including: Water Recovery Systems IP Limited, a water purification and membrane technology company based in the United Kingdom (UK), and CUT Carbon Distributed Technologies AG, a carbon credit proponent company based in Liechtenstein.”
Each project developer completed transactions “on the platform, with CUT Carbon Distributed Technologies AG selling digital carbon credits to Adapt Global Limited, a global telecommunications company that empowers circular and sustainable technology solutions.”
Northern Trust Matrix Zenith builds “on Northern Trust’s extensive experience with blockchain-based systems dating back to the first commercial deployment of blockchain technology for the private equity market in 2017, collaborating with BondEvalue to deliver integrated fractionalized ownership of fixed-income bonds (2019) for the BondbloX platform followed by partnering in the launch of institutional grade crypto asset custodian Zodia Custody (2020/21).”
Northern Trust Matrix Zenith is part “of Northern Trust’s Digital Assets and Financial Markets group which combines the teams responsible for supporting the fast-growing digital asset markets and those dedicated to providing market access and insights across the traditional securities services markets.”
Further transactions on the platform are planned for later in 2024.
The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem is offered “through The Northern Trust Company, Chicago.”