FTX Climate program includes carbon neutral initiatives, research funding, special projects, and carbon removal solutions

ANTIGUA, July 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The FTX Foundation Group, a collective group consisting of companies owned by Sam Bankman-Fried and related contributors ("FTX Foundation"), today announced the launch of the FTX Climate program.

This global initiative is the first major program launched by the FTX Foundation and is centered around four ambitious goals: 1) meeting FTX Trading Limited's ("FTX") commitment to becoming carbon neutral this year, 2) funding research and policy initiatives that will have an outsized impact on the climate crisis, 3) supporting the growth of carbon removal solutions and 4) funding other climate related special projects.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried commented on today's news, "FTX Climate is an important step for us in leaving the planet in a better place than it is today. We consider ourselves lucky to live in the world as we do, and we feel a responsibility to make sure future generations get to experience it as well. When we announced our commitment to becoming carbon neutral in May, we said we were going to do this right and find a holistic and impactful way to address climate change. This is just the first of many programs we plan to undertake in order to effectively support organizations trying to save our planet."

Carbon Neutrality

FTX & the FTX Foundation publicly committed to spending a minimum of $1 million this year to offset the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining and storage. As a result, the FTX Climate program has already purchased over $1 million (or 100,000 tons) in carbon offsets through two organizations, BurnStoves and Pachama: 

• BurnStoves created an inexpensive and environmentally friendly stove for African countries. The sale of 7,000 VER carbon credits will allow BurnStoves to increase scale and reduce the cost of the stoves they produce.
• Pachama allows corporations to buy forest based carbon offsets from projects around the world. FTX Climate has purchased 93,000 carbon credits to support the Kootznoowoo project in Alaska, Bajo Calima y Bahía Málaga project in Colombia, and the Nicaforest project in Nicaragua.

Research & Policy Funding

FTX Climate is dedicated to furthering research on how best to solve the climate crisis and how public policy can be shaped to effect change. In support of that, FTX Climate has committed over $500,000 combined to three organizations working on research and policy initiatives relating to climate change: Giving Green, CarbonPlan, and the Good Food Institute.

Further information on these organizations and the commitments made to them can be found on the Research & Policy page of the FTX Climate website. 

Carbon Removal

Another key area of focus for FTX Climate will be Carbon Removal, with the program committing $1,000,000 to permanent carbon capture and storage. While there have been great strides made in terms of renewable energy, Carbon Removal looks to mitigate and hopefully reverse the impacts of climate change that we're already seeing by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it permanently. While no solutions exist currently to conduct carbon removal at a globally relevant scale for a feasible cost, the $1 million committed by the FTX Climate program is being set aside to work with the organizations looking to make this into a globally effective solution.

Special Projects

As its first special project, FTX Climate has also made a three-year commitment to The Honnold Foundation to install solar panels in the places they are needed the most. This year, FTX has committed $50,000 to help complete the current joint effort between the Honnold Foundation and the Ceibo Alliance with an additional $100,000 per year to be committed in 2022 & 2023 in order to fully fund two new solar panel projects in the Amazon.  

The FTX Foundation is centered around the FTX team's desire to live in a world where everyone has the same opportunities. With the pledge of one percent of all net fees going towards charitable giving, the FTX Foundation manages and disperses these funds to the most effective organizations around the world. The FTX Foundation has already earmarked more than $10 million for charity this year with more than 3 million dollars already donated to support a variety of charities including those addressing the recent flooding in the Henan Province in China and the oxygen crisis in India.

To learn more about the FTX Climate program, please visit: FTX Climate

About FTX

FTX.COM is a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders. It offers innovative products, including industry-leading derivatives, options and volatility products, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, leveraged tokens and an OTC desk. FTX.COM strives to be an intuitive yet powerful platform for all kinds of users, and to be the most innovative exchange in the industry. FTX.COM has grown quickly since its founding, becoming one of the most respected cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in less than 2 years.

To learn more about FTX.COM, please visit: https://ftx.com/

FTX.COM is not available to US residents or residents of other prohibited jurisdictions, as set out in its Terms of Service.

About FTX.US

FTX.US is a US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange, built from the ground up. Our mission is for FTX.US to grow the digital currency ecosystem, offer US traders a platform that inspires their loyalty and become the market leading US cryptocurrency exchange by volume over the next two years.

To learn more about FTX.US, please visit: https://ftx.us/

Media Contact:

Jay Morakis
M Group Strategic Communications (for FTX)
+1 646-859-5951
ftx@mgroupsc.com