WeWork Founder's Climate Firm Refunds Crypto Token Holders After Failed Launch: Forbes

Flowcarbon, a climate company co-founded by WeWork's Adam Neumann, is refunding holders of its native crypto token, the "Goddess Nature Token," after it failed to launch, according to a Forbes report.

The startup, which started in 2022 and raised $70 million from investors like Andreessen Horowitz to tokenize carbon credits by bringing them onto the blockchain, planned to create a token backed 1:1 by carbon credits.

Carbon credits aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by allowing their owners to offset a certain amount of emissions. Each credit represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide removed.

While most carbon credits are directly purchased from a project owner or a broker, Neumann's startup planned to sell them as crypto tokens.

Out of the $70 million in funding for Flowcarbon, at least $38 million was raised through the sale of the Goddess Nature Token or GNT.

But the company has now been reaching out to holders of the token to issue a refund, citing market conditions and resistance from carbon registries for the discontinuation of the token, people familiar with the matter told Forbes.

"It's well known that since last year we have been offering refunds to retail GNT buyers due to the industry delays, with standard and customary terms, as we continue to grow Flowcarbon as a leader in carbon finance," Flowcarbon told Forbes.

In July 2022, CEO Dana Gibber told the Wall Street Journal that the company had paused the launch of the token to "wait for markets to stabilize." This came after crypto market saw an implosion from the FTX fallout and prominent carbon credit registry Verra warned against tokenizing those credits which are typically retired after purchase.

With many countries aiming to be carbon-neutral, the traditional carbon credit market has become very lucrative for investors. In 2022, the market was valued at more than $330 billion.

Tokenization, or bringing these credits onto the blockchain, was aimed at making this large market more transparent and accessible for investors. Recently, the tokenized trading project Neutral and DLT Finance, a German brokerage firm, built a regulated blockchain-backed platform for carbon credits where investors can trade them.

Read more: Crypto Carbon: Can Blockchain Networks Fix Carbon Offsets?