Buying and selling NZUs

Trading on Carbon Trader® happens between holders. Sellers list their own units at a fixed price, and buyers take all or part of a lot. The seller chooses, for each listing, whether its sales settle through escrow, with Carbon Trader holding the money and the units, or direct between buyer and seller. Carbon Trader does not act as a broker and does not sell units on anyone's behalf.

Everything here lives under Trade in your dashboard menu: Marketplace for lots that are open now, Sell NZUs for offering units of your own, and Buy requests for wanted requests.

Browsing

Anyone can view units for sale and wanted requests without an account. To act on one you need an account, which takes an email address and a password.

Buying a lot, or part of one

Every listing says, before you buy, whether it is escrow-protected or a direct sale.

1. Open a lot from units for sale or from Marketplace in your dashboard.
2. Choose Buy and enter the quantity you want. Unless the listing says otherwise, you can take part of a lot and the rest stays listed.
3. Confirm. The price per unit is the one shown at that moment and is fixed for your purchase.

An escrow-protected lot

1. Your identity must be confirmed before you buy. If it is not yet, the lot asks you to confirm it in place of the Buy button. This happens once.
2. When you buy, a settlement opens under Settlements. On it, choose Email me an invoice. Pay the exact amount by bank transfer, quoting the short reference, by the pay-by date shown. You pay only the price of the units; the escrow fee is the seller's.
3. The purchase must be paid within 7 days. We remind you 2 days before; if the money has not arrived by then, the purchase is cancelled and the units go back on sale.
4. Once your payment clears, the seller transfers the units and they are delivered to you. A purchase from a Carbon Trader wallet into your wallet completes automatically.

A direct lot

1. You need your own Emissions Trading Register account, saved under Account details: the units go from the seller's Register account straight to yours. You also need a confirmed email address, because the seller is given it to contact you; an account that signs in with Carbon Tracker confirms its address under Account details.
2. When you buy, we email you the seller's contact details, and their bank account if they have saved one. The seller gets your contact details and your Register account number.
3. Agree payment with the seller and pay them directly, within 7 days. Pay only into an account the seller has confirmed to you.
4. The seller transfers the units to your Register account and marks the sale complete. If you decide not to go ahead, cancel it under Settlements before then and the units go back on sale.

In a direct sale Carbon Trader never holds the money or the units, does not check the payment or the transfer, and gives no protection to either side. There is no escrow fee and no identity check by Carbon Trader. See Payments, fees and settlement.

Making an offer below the listed price

From 31 October 2026 you do not have to pay the listed price. If a lot is priced above what you would pay, make the seller an offer and let them decide.

1. Your identity must be confirmed first, whether the lot is escrow-protected or direct. An offer is a binding commitment to buy at your price if the seller accepts it, so it is open only to verified accounts. If you have not confirmed it yet, the lot shows Confirm your identity in place of the offer form. It happens once.
2. Open the lot, enter how many units you want, choose Make an offer and enter your price per NZU. It must be below the listed price, and at least half of it. On a lot with no published price you can name any price. You can add a short note for the seller; nothing in it identifies you.
3. Confirm. The seller is emailed at once. Your offer stands for 3 days, or until the listing closes if that is sooner, and you can withdraw it under Your offers on the Marketplace screen at any time before the seller answers. A new offer on the same lot replaces your earlier one.
4. If the seller accepts, the purchase opens straight away at your price, on exactly the terms of a purchase at the listed price: an escrow lot asks you to pay into escrow within 7 days; a direct lot sends you the seller's details to pay them directly. If the seller declines, you are told, with any note they add, and you can offer again or buy at the listed price. An offer that is not answered expires, and one the listing can no longer fill (it closed, was withdrawn, or sold down below your quantity) lapses; either way you are emailed.

Carbon Trader does not negotiate, advise on or accept offers on anyone's behalf. The seller sees your offer as from "a verified buyer" and never sees your name. On an escrow lot the seller pays the escrow fee from the proceeds, so an offer worth less than that fee cannot be made.

Selling: creating a listing

Open Sell NZUs and choose New listing. You enter the quantity, choose a price (match the daily market reference, or your own price per unit), an optional floor price and a closing date, choose Sell with escrow or Sell direct, and tick the seller declaration. A listing costs $29.00 including GST, invoiced when it goes live. An escrow sale costs $159.00 plus GST, taken from the proceeds of each completed sale; a direct sale has no escrow fee. There is no success fee.

Selling NZUs: how to list covers it step by step, including what happens after you submit.

Units in a Carbon Trader wallet

The quantity is reserved from your wallet and the lot is published straight away, or at the start time you set. A wallet lot always sells with escrow.

Units in your own Register account

The listing is created but is not visible to buyers until Carbon Trader has seen proof of the units. Until then it shows as Awaiting escrow, whether you chose escrow or direct. You do not transfer the units to us to list them.

Posting a wanted request

1. Open Buy requests in your dashboard.
2. Choose New buy request.
3. Enter the quantity, the price per unit you will pay, where you want the units delivered and the closing date.
4. Submit it, then fund it: ask for the invoice from the same screen and pay the exact amount by bank transfer. You pay the offer, and nothing more.

A wanted request goes live to sellers once the money has arrived in escrow, so a holder who sells to it knows the funds are there. Your identity is confirmed before the invoice is issued, if it has not been already. If the request closes without a seller taking it, the money is refunded.

Selling to a wanted request

If you hold units, you can sell to an open wanted request at the price the buyer has offered, without creating a listing. Your identity must be confirmed first, if it has not been already. The buyer's money is already in escrow, so the trade moves straight to settlement through escrow: you transfer the units and are paid once they arrive, less the escrow fee of $159.00 plus GST.

Changing or withdrawing your own listing

You can change the price or closing date of your listing, or withdraw it, at any time before a buyer commits. You can switch between escrow and direct while no units from the listing have been bought. The quantity cannot be changed. On an organisation's live listing, a new price goes back to an approver before buyers see it. Wallet reservations are released when a withdrawal completes. A wanted request that has been funded cannot be cancelled from the screen; contact us.

Statuses

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