SkyBridge buys 38,500 tons of carbon offsets

Published at: Aug. 3, 2021

Global investment firm SkyBridge Capital has partnered with carbon credit provider Moss to purchase tokens representing 38,436 tons of carbon offsets.

SkyBridge announced the move on Monday, with founder Anthony Scaramucci forecasting that the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry “will be fully renewable by the end of the decade.” In the meantime, Scaramucci believes carbon offsets offer an “effective” means for the sector to improve its ecological footprint:

“In the interim, carbon offsets represent an effective way to green the Bitcoin network and facilitate adoption by ESG-minded investors.”

SkyBridge is an institutional asset manager that provides exposure to BTC via fund products. The firm also has a pending application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Moss is a climate tech firm that provides carbon credit-backed “MCO2” tokens for offsetting greenhouse emissions. As part of the partnership, SkyBridge used a “conservative” estimate to determine the carbon footprint associated with its Bitcoin holdings.

Moss sources carbon credits from independently verified projects such as Vera, which combat deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and source their environmental initiatives through the sale of carbon credits.

Related: A green revolution in crypto mining? Industry answers wake-up call

SkyBridge joins several crypto firms that have purchased carbon offsets to reduce their environmental footprint this year, including crypto exchanges FTX, Gemini and BitMEX.

Environmental concerns have hampered crypto’s narrative in 2021 following Elon Musk’s May announcement that Tesla would halt accepting BTC payments until the mining sector is able to demonstrate it is verifiably sustainable.

A study published by the Bitcoin Mining Council on July 2 estimated that the global Bitcoin mining sector reached a 56% sustainable power mix in Q2. However, the survey was based on just three questions and relied on voluntary and self-reported responses from 32% of miners on the network.

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