With Bitcoin’s environmental impact increasingly scrutinized by investors, a plethora of companies are looking for energy-efficient alternatives.
One, River Digital Asset Management, LLC, is offering up a solution, having filed an S-1 with the SEC on May 24th for the One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin ETF, the first carbon-neutral cryptocurrency ETF to be put before the commission.
So How Is This ETF Carbon Neutral?
The One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin ETF would hold physical Bitcoin and carbon credits and be priced via the MVIS One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Index, which uses spot Bitcoin prices volume-weighted from various top cryptocurrency exchanges, adjusted to reflect carbon credits necessary to neutralize the bitcoin’s carbon footprint.
To source its carbon credits, One River has partnered with LIRDES S.A., a company located in Uruguay that does business as Moss Earth.
Moss Earth buys carbon credits from projects that are certified by Verra, a non-profit organization that standardizes projects that certify carbon credits. These credits are then represented by the MCO2 fungible token utilizing blockchain technology and stored on a registry that Verra manages.
One River will purchase these tokens to offset the current estimated carbon emissions of the Bitcoin held by the Trust.
The fund would trade on the NYSE per the filing, but currently has no ticker nor expense ratio listed. Coinbase has partnered as the custodian for the fund.
Former SEC Chair in Advisory Role
Worthy of note, former SEC Chair Jay Clayton is an adviser at One River, having recently joined its newly created Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, per CoinDesk.
“The One River Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council will help us consider how these new digital systems and the investment opportunities they present will best fit within existing policy, while also helping us think through how to advance these frameworks in ways that ensure the US continues to lead the world in financial innovation and asset management,” said Eric Peters, CEO of One River Digital Asset Management.
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