Active

Toucan Review 2026: Onchain Carbon Credits and CHAR

Toucan Protocol builds onchain infrastructure for carbon markets, turning carbon credits into tokens and pooling them for trading and retirement. It is an infrastructure project for climate-focused builders and buyers, with thin trading and several details left unpublished.

By the DappsAtlas editorial team · Updated Nov 5, 2026

DappsAtlas score

6.5/10

Good

Visit Toucan

Our verdict on Toucan

6.5/10

Toucan suits climate-focused builders, DAOs and crypto users who want to buy, pool or retire tokenized carbon credits, especially biochar removal credits through CHAR. Its strength is a clear purpose and real integrations with carbon registry standards. The caveats are thin pool liquidity, unpublished fees and audit details, and a transition to open source plus the Cedar spin-out that adds uncertainty. Read the documentation and test with a small amount first.

Score breakdown

How Toucan scores

Security: n/a
Ease of use: 6.0/10
Fees: n/a
Features: 7.0/10

Scores run from 0 to 10 and are based only on facts we could verify. Where information was missing we mark the score n/a rather than guess.

What is Toucan?

Toucan Protocol describes itself as infrastructure for carbon markets, aimed at financing climate solutions. It tokenizes carbon credits so they can move onchain, then pools them into tokens such as Base Carbon Tonne (BCT), Nature Carbon Tonne (NCT) and CHAR.

The project's most recent products focus on carbon removal. CHAR, launched in 2024, is described as the first onchain carbon dioxide removal credit pool. It is backed by biochar credits and became available on Base. Toucan also built a two-way bridge to the Puro.earth standard and ran grants and tutorials for developers.

In May 2025 Toucan announced that the protocol is becoming open source and community-driven, and that it is launching a separate venture called Cedar. The blog also shows work with Gold Standard, the World Economic Forum and several hackathons, including on Celo.

The pool tokens appear to trade in small volumes. One price tracker lists NCT with a market cap in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and almost no daily volume. Toucan is better understood as carbon-market infrastructure than as a liquid trading venue.

How Toucan works

Carbon credits normally sit in off-chain registries. Toucan's tools move them onchain by tokenizing them, which produces a digital token tied to a specific credit. Bridges, such as the one built with Puro.earth for biochar credits, handle the link between the registry and the chain.

Tokenized credits can then be deposited into pools. BCT and NCT are pool tokens that group credits meeting set criteria into a single fungible token with a market price. CHAR does the same for biochar carbon removal credits. Because pool tokens are interchangeable, they can be traded and used in other apps more easily than individual credits.

A holder who wants to offset emissions can retire the credit, which takes it out of circulation. One analytics page says the protocol collects fees when users redeem tokenized credits from the BCT and NCT pools.

7 features

Key features

Carbon credit tokenization

Carbon credits from registries are converted into onchain tokens, which gives them traceable, programmable form for use in apps and markets.

BCT and NCT pools

BCT and NCT pool tokenized credits (TCO2) into fungible tokens. This makes them easier to trade than individual credits with different attributes.

CHAR biochar pool

CHAR is described as the first onchain carbon dioxide removal credit pool, built for biochar. It allows automated buying and selling at a transparent market price, around the clock.

Base deployment

CHAR is available on Base, a low-cost chain, so people can fund carbon removal through onchain activity.

Puro.earth bridge

A two-way bridge to the Puro.earth standard, built on the Puro Connect API, settles biochar credits onchain and speeds up retirements.

Builder grants and tutorials

Toucan offered $250k in grants for apps integrating CHAR and published tutorials on integrating tokenized carbon credits.

Open-source direction

The protocol is becoming an open-source, community-driven project, with the separate venture Cedar launching alongside it.

Pros and cons

What we like

Clear mission: bringing carbon credits onchain with transparent, programmable tokens.
Covers carbon removal as well as avoidance credits, including the CHAR biochar pool.
Integrations with an established registry standard (Puro.earth) via a two-way bridge.
Builder resources: tutorials and a grant program for apps integrating CHAR.
Moving to open source, which allows public inspection of the code and community contributions.
Runs on Base, where transaction costs are generally low.

Watch out for

Pool tokens such as NCT trade with very thin volume and a small market cap according to one price tracker, so exiting a position can be hard.
Fee levels for redemptions and other actions are not published in the material reviewed, so costs are unclear.
No audit reports, custody details or team information appear in the material reviewed.
The protocol is moving to an open-source, community-driven model and spinning out a separate venture, Cedar, which adds uncertainty about who maintains what.
Carbon credit quality and integrity depend on off-chain registries and project developers, not on the blockchain itself.
Several unrelated products share the Toucan name, including a gold-backed Toucan-X project, which makes research confusing.

Toucan fees

Toucan does not publish a fee schedule in the material reviewed. One analytics page reports that protocol revenue comes from fees charged when users redeem tokenized carbon credits (TCO2) through the BCT and NCT pools, and that there are no token incentive expenses. It gives no rates.

Network gas on Base or another chain, and any fee charged by a bridge or trading venue, would come on top. Users should check the protocol documentation and the transaction preview in their wallet before confirming anything.

Is Toucan safe?

The material reviewed does not include audit reports, a bug bounty, custody details or team disclosures, so smart-contract risk cannot be assessed from it. Anyone using the protocol should check the documentation and repositories for audits before depositing funds.

There are also market risks. Pool tokens can trade at thin volume, prices can drift from the value of the underlying credits, and the integrity of a credit depends on off-chain registries and project developers. The move to an open-source model and the launch of Cedar may change who operates and maintains the protocol. Toucan does not state any licence or regulatory status in the material reviewed.

6 steps

How to get started with Toucan

1
Read the protocol documentation to understand tokenization, pools and retirement before moving any funds.
2
Decide whether you want to buy, pool or retire credits, or build an app that integrates them.
3
Set up a self-custody wallet that supports the relevant network, such as Base for CHAR.
4
Fund the wallet with a small amount of the network's gas token and the asset needed for your first transaction.
5
Check the pool token's liquidity and price on the venue you plan to use, since volume can be thin.
6
Start with a small transaction, review the fee preview in your wallet, and keep a record for any retirement certificate you need.

Open Toucan

Who Toucan is for

Toucan is for developers who want to integrate tokenized carbon credits into apps, climate-focused organizations that want to retire credits onchain, and crypto-literate users interested in carbon removal assets. It is not aimed at people seeking liquid, high-volume trading markets.

Toucan FAQs

What is Toucan Protocol?

Toucan Protocol is infrastructure that brings carbon credits onchain. It tokenizes credits from registries and pools them into fungible tokens so they can be traded, integrated into apps and retired to offset emissions.

What are BCT, NCT and CHAR?

BCT (Base Carbon Tonne) and NCT (Nature Carbon Tonne) are pool tokens backed by tokenized carbon credits (TCO2). CHAR is a newer pool for biochar carbon dioxide removal credits, which launched on Base in April 2024.

Is Toucan still active?

Toucan announced in May 2025 that the protocol is becoming open source and community-driven. At the same time it announced Cedar, a new independent venture. The protocol blog was still publishing and carrying a 2026 copyright notice.

How does Toucan make money?

One analytics page reports that revenue comes from fees collected when users redeem tokenized carbon credits through the BCT and NCT pools. It also says Toucan has no token incentive expenses. The specific fee rates are not stated in the material reviewed.

Can I retire carbon credits through Toucan?

Toucan runs a bridge integration with Puro.earth that lets biochar credits settle onchain, and the project says it is aimed at non-technical users. The resulting tokens can then be pooled or retired. Check the current documentation for the exact steps.

Is there support for developers?

Toucan runs a grant program that offered $250k in total funding for apps integrating CHAR, and it publishes tutorials on integrating tokenized carbon credits. The documentation is the place to check what is still available.

Is Toucan the same as Toucan-X?

No. Toucan-X is a separate project built around gold-backed tokens and has no stated link to Toucan Protocol's carbon work. Check which project you are reading about before acting.

Compare

Toucan alternatives

All alternatives

Brickken

Real-World Assets

Brickken is an RWA tokenization platform that lets businesses issue and manage asset-backed tokens with built-in KYC/KYB and compliance tools.

TVL $42.4M+0.0%BNB Chain · Ethereum · Base +2

Anemoy Capital

Real-World Assets

Anemoy Capital is a Centrifuge-powered asset manager offering tokenized Treasury, AAA CLO and S&P 500 funds for eligible onchain investors.

TVL $102M−0.3%Ethereum · Base · Celo

Tangible RWA

Real-World Assets

Tangible is a tokenization protocol and NFT marketplace for real estate and Treasury-backed assets, including Real USD and USTB, across several chains.

TVL $42.0M+0.1%Polygon · Arbitrum · Optimism +2

Lofty

Real-World Assets

Lofty is a fractional U.S. real estate platform on Algorand that sells rental property shares from about $50 and pays rent daily.

TVL $101M−0.0%Algorand

OpenTrade

Real-World Assets

OpenTrade provides stablecoin yield infrastructure for fintechs and platforms, offering real-world-asset-backed vaults on Ethereum, Avalanche and Plume.

TVL $246M−0.3%Avalanche · Ethereum · Plume

OnRe

Real-World Assets

OnRe is a Solana RWA protocol where users deposit into ONyc, an asset backed by reinsurance premiums, for yield uncorrelated with crypto markets.

TVL $309M+1.4%Solana

Same category

More Real-World Assets dApps

Real-World Assets rankings

Spiko

Real-World Assets

Spiko is a French-regulated platform offering T-bill money market funds and multi-currency cash accounts with daily yield for companies and individuals.

BlackRock BUIDL

Real-World Assets

BlackRock BUIDL is a tokenized U.S. Treasury-backed fund issued via Securitize, paying daily dividends to eligible, mostly institutional investors.

Dinari

Real-World Assets

Dinari issues dShares, 1:1 backed tokenized US stocks and ETFs distributed through partner apps, a widget and an API for compliance-minded users.

VNX

Real-World Assets

VNX issues Bermuda-licensed Swiss franc and pound stablecoins and tokenized gold, with mint, bridge and DeFi access for users and institutions.

Ethereum · Polygon · Solana +3

Paxos Gold

Real-World Assets

Pax Gold (PAXG) is a Paxos-issued Ethereum token backed by one troy ounce of vaulted London gold, aimed at people wanting regulated on-chain gold exposure.

Ethereum