This time, we’re looking at Green Carbon Token (GCT). Under the banner of the “Internet of Markets,” a vision of connecting carbon credits and every other kind of asset on the blockchain, GCT is building next-generation carbon finance infrastructure while expanding its presence on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

Right now, strong tailwinds are blowing through the space GCT is targeting: an energy crisis driven by the Middle East conflict, digital asset regulation advancing around the world, and the move of traditional finance onchain. With these three shifts unfolding at the same time, GCT stands exactly where they all intersect. And for GCT itself, the next move beyond DEXs is starting to come into view.

First, let’s look at what is happening in global energy markets.

The Middle East Crisis Exposed the Fragility of Fossil Fuel Dependence

The war involving Iran that began on February 28, 2026, has shaken the world’s energy supply chain.

The focal point is the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through it. According to Reuters, only seven vessels transited the strait on September 10, less than half the previous 10-day average of 15. LNG shipments in September recovered to their highest level since the war began, but remain far below pre-war levels. Gas prices in Asia and Europe have climbed to their highest since the 2022–2023 energy crisis.

Asia has been hit hardest. With LNG scarce and expensive, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and others have been ramping up coal-fired power since March, shifting toward coal and oil. Japan’s JERA has also said it will keep its coal plants running at high utilization. A “return to coal,” running against the decarbonization trend, is actually happening.

What this crisis has shown is that the world’s energy still hinges on a single strait and on geopolitical risk. And precisely because emissions are rising, the systems that measure, trade and offset them — in other words, carbon markets — matter more than ever.

A Growing Carbon Market — and Its Structural Problems

Carbon credits turn reductions or removals of greenhouse gases into units that can be bought and sold. They have become an essential tool for companies and countries working toward net zero.

The carbon credit market was worth about $114.3 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach about $482 billion by 2035, a CAGR of roughly 15.9% (Global Market Insights). The voluntary market, where companies buy credits of their own accord, is growing even faster: one forecast sees it rising from about $15.8 billion in 2025 to about $120.5 billion by 2030 — more than sevenfold in five years (Mordor Intelligence).

But this huge market has serious problems.

One credit, used again and again. The same credit can be sold twice, or the same reduction claimed by several companies as their own. This is known as “double counting.” Buyers have no way of confirming whether they have actually offset their emissions.

Managed separately by every country and registry. Credits are managed separately by each registry and country, making cross-border trading slow and opaque.

Verifying authenticity costs too much. ESG investors and companies spend significant time and money confirming that a credit is genuine and has not already been used.

The market is growing. But its foundation still cannot answer one question: can it really be trusted?

What Is GCT?

Green Carbon Token (GCT) is a project taking on these carbon market problems head-on with blockchain technology. Its vision is the “Internet of Markets”: a world where carbon credits, equities, bonds and every other asset can be issued, traded and settled on a single network.

At its core is the digitization of carbon credits. GCT is designed to convert credits into tokens called CATs and record their entire history on-chain, from issuance to final retirement. Once realized, the same credit can no longer be used twice — by design.

GCT also aims to change how settlement works. Its vision is to settle cross-border transfers that pass through multiple correspondent banks, and securities trades that take days to clear, within minutes — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, free from banking hours.

Regulatory compliance is built into the design as well. With KYC/AML checks completed automatically at the moment of each transaction, GCT aims to be a foundation financial institutions can build on as-is.

In short: a payment network for the green economy, built on blockchain. GCT’s goal is to become the “green money” of the digital age.

Technology and Design

The GCT network runs on Proof of Space and Time (PoST). Instead of energy-hungry mining, it secures the network with spare capacity on ordinary hard drives and SSDs, using less than 1% of the energy of conventional Proof of Work chains. While Bitcoin keeps consuming electricity on the scale of an entire nation, GCT can secure its network using almost none. No specialized mining hardware is needed, so it generates no e-waste either. It is a blockchain that places no burden on the planet — green, just as its name says.

Transactions are designed with bank-grade safety features. Set a withdrawal limit, and most of your assets stay protected even if the worst happens. A feature that lets you cancel a transfer within a set time if you send it to the wrong address is also planned, as is a system that uses decentralized identifiers (DIDs) to meet KYC/AML requirements without exposing personal data.

GCT’s foundational supply is 1 billion tokens. New tokens are issued as rewards to participants who secure the network, and these rewards halve every three years. As with Bitcoin, new supply tightens over time.

Roadmap: 2026 to 2027

GCT is moving in a clear order: first secure the network, then welcome financial institutions.

Phase 1: Foundation (Q1–Q2 2026) — Launch of the mainnet and genesis block. Growth of network capacity and initial liquidity across decentralized markets.

Phase 2: Asset Digitization (Q3–Q4 2026) — Introduction of the CAT standard and launch of a verifiable carbon credit issuance platform in partnership with environmental auditors. According to the roadmap, this is the current phase.

Phase 3: Institutional Gateway (Q1–Q2 2027) — Integration of DID-compliant settlement layers. Pilot programs for cross-border payments and tokenized green bonds.

Phase 4: Global Utility (Q3 2027 onward) — Becoming a universal unit of account for the green economy, supporting sovereign-grade digital assets and moving to fully decentralized governance.

Rather than chasing short-term buzz, the roadmap is built to steadily earn the trust that conservative financial institutions need before moving their core operations. Asset digitization is now underway, with institutional expansion ahead.

Visa Is Moving Too: Finance Goes Onchain

Alongside energy, one more thing is moving fast: financial infrastructure.

In April 2026, Visa, one of the world’s largest payment companies, expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to nine blockchains. Its annualized settlement run rate reached about $7 billion, up 50% in a single quarter. Then in July, Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform, which lets financial institutions and fintechs issue, move and manage stablecoins.

A giant that handles the world’s payments has started treating blockchain not as an experiment, but as core infrastructure. That means the “24/7 onchain settlement” GCT envisions is no longer a pipe dream.

No investment or partnership between GCT and Visa has been announced. But the direction global finance is heading and what GCT is building point in exactly the same direction.

What the CLARITY Act Signals for Digital Asset Markets

In the United States, the CLARITY Act, which would set a clear regulatory framework for digital asset markets, has become the central focus. In a procedural vote on September 15, 2026, the Senate voted 49 in favor and 50 against, short of the 60 votes needed, so the bill has not yet become law. Still, the fact that the debate has come this far shows that digital assets are entering an era in which they are used within a regulatory framework.

Once regulation is in place, the winners will be projects that built in compliance from the start. With DID-based KYC/AML compliance built in from the design stage, GCT is designed to meet that requirement.

From DEXs to the World’s Markets

GCT currently trades mainly on DEXs. But this is only a waypoint. The first step coming into view is listings on the world’s leading DEXs, such as Uniswap and SushiSwap. And beyond that, GCT has its sights set on major global exchanges. Infrastructure development, fundraising and international business expansion also appear to be in the works behind the scenes.

Uniswap is the world’s largest DEX. Its cumulative trading volume exceeds $3.6 trillion, and it was the first DEX ever to pass the $3 trillion mark. SushiSwap is known as the most multichain DEX, deployed on more than 40 blockchains. Listed on these two, GCT would be within reach of investors across Ethereum and many other chains, straight from the wallets they already use. GCT would be stepping onto DeFi’s “main street.”

And the main event lies beyond that: the major exchanges. However large a DEX is, buying on it is limited to investors who manage their own wallets. Once GCT is listed on major exchanges, anyone in the world will be able to buy it with a single smartphone app. More than 741 million people worldwide now own crypto, and the largest exchange alone has over 300 million registered users. That is the size of the market opening up in front of GCT.

Liquidity and visibility would expand rapidly, putting GCT right at the center of the global market. Simply having its name on major exchanges speaks to a project’s credibility and future. Add fundraising and international expansion, and the institutional phase of its roadmap gains real momentum.

How the market sees a project at the DEX stage and after a major exchange listing are worlds apart. From a project known only to a few, to one the whole world is suddenly watching — that switch happens in an instant.

Put another way, the only people holding GCT today are the small group of investors who found their way to it on DEXs. This quiet window, before money from around the world flows in, won’t last forever. After it lands on major exchanges, taking the same position will cost far more. There is a position available now, before that expansion, that won’t be available later.

From Energy Crisis to GCT Demand

Energy crisis and the return to coal
With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz collapsing and LNG in short supply, Asia is turning back to coal. As emissions rise, the need for carbon credits to offset them only grows.

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Carbon market expansion
The market is projected to grow from about $114.3 billion in 2025 to about $482 billion in 2035. As long as companies and countries commit to net zero, this trend won’t stop.

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Demand for transparent infrastructure
The larger the market grows, the less tolerance there will be for double counting and opacity. It needs a foundation that tracks credits from issuance to retirement and meets regulatory requirements.

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Growing use of the GCT network
GCT is building that foundation, aiming to deliver carbon credit digitization through CATs, real-time settlement and DID-based compliance on a single network.

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Rising demand for GCT
As more assets are issued and traded on the network, use of GCT as its foundation grows, while halvings steadily tighten supply. Demand rises as supply tightens.

Why GCT Deserves Attention

Geopolitics is a tailwind. The Middle East crisis has shown the world how fragile an energy system built on fossil fuels is. The value of systems that transparently manage emissions and environmental assets has risen sharply because of it.

Market growth is backed by numbers. The carbon market is projected to more than quadruple in 10 years, and the voluntary market to grow more than sevenfold in five. This is not a passing boom, but growth driven by national climate targets and corporate net-zero commitments.

Global finance is moving in the same direction. Visa is scaling up stablecoin settlement, and digital asset legislation is at the center of debate in the United States. The move of traditional finance onchain is now unstoppable.

Environment and regulation are built into the design from day one. PoST keeps energy use below 1% of PoW, and DID-based KYC/AML compliance is built into the design. Few projects manage to be both eco-friendly and regulation-ready.

Leading DEXs, then major global exchanges. GCT currently trades on DEXs and is eyeing listings on leading DEXs such as Uniswap and SushiSwap, expansion onto major global exchanges, infrastructure development, fundraising and international business expansion. After it lands on major exchanges, taking the same position will cost far more. Now, before that expansion, is the most advantageous time to take a position.

CAT-based credit issuance and institutional settlement are only just getting started. In other words, most of GCT’s growth potential still lies ahead.

Conclusion

The Middle East crisis has revealed how fragile the foundations of the world’s energy supply are. Asia is returning to coal, and the question of how to measure and offset emissions weighs more heavily than ever. In the United States, digital asset regulation has become a major policy issue, and financial giants like Visa have already begun bringing blockchain into their core infrastructure.

Energy crisis, digital asset regulation, finance moving onchain. Where these three shifts meet, the answer is GCT. The “Internet of Markets,” connecting carbon markets, tokenized assets and digital settlement on a single network, is exactly the infrastructure this era demands.

Energy crisis → carbon market expansion → demand for transparent infrastructure → growing use of the GCT network → rising demand for GCT. As long as this logic holds, demand for GCT will keep growing alongside the carbon market.

And today, GCT is still known only to a small group of investors. Once it lands on Uniswap, SushiSwap and then major global exchanges, and investors around the world discover it all at once, no one will be able to stand where early holders stand now. Waiting until the price starts moving and thinking “I should have bought back then” will be too late.

The only time to take an early position is now — before the expansion.