Gujarat launches Asia's 1st Water Credits Marketplace-UWRXpress

Pioneering Environmental Assets for Digital Finance Era
Gujarat, India - [16/10/2025] - In a landmark development for global environmental finance, Universal Water Registry (UWR) today announced the launch of UWRXpress, Asia's 1st global e-commerce marketplace for verified water credits. This pioneering platform emerges as a crucial bridge between tangible environmental action and the evolving digital finance landscape, launching at a time when India is actively shaping its real world asset finance blockchain policy framework.

The marketplace was officially launched by Minister of State, Shri Mukeshbhai Patel, Forest and Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources and Water Supply, Gujarat in the presence of Mr Vihar Pancholi, CEO, UWR.

The marketplace debut follows Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's significant address at the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2025, where she emphasized the inevitable integration of stablecoins into mainstream finance and their profound impact on global capital flows. UWRXpress positions itself at the convergence of these developments, offering a new class of environmental assets with potential applications in the green digital asset climate finance ecosystem.

UWR Seller Account Holders Please Note:

The Marketplace FAQs

Marketplace Listing Fee For Seller Account Holders: UWR charges every project developer or seller a standard primary listing fee per vintage listed to cover the administration costs for hosting and maintaining the UWR XPRESS. The listing fee is currently* INR 500/- (inclusive of all taxes) per vintage listed by the seller, with a maximum permitted listing volume of 20,000 RoUs per vintage for a period of 2 months or as specified by UWR from time to time

"UWRXpress represents more than just an e-commerce marketplace - it's the foundation for recognizing water conservation as a valuable asset class," said Vihar Pancholi, CEO-Director of UWR. "By eliminating intermediaries and enabling project developers from Gujarat to Brazil to set their own prices, we're creating genuine price discovery for water stewardship while providing direct finance rails to grassroots conservation efforts."

Building Trust in Environmental Markets

UWR-verified water credits represent measurable, tradable units that certify the positive outcomes of water stewardship projects worldwide. Unlike traditional water rights that involve physical water trading, these credits symbolize verified conservation impact - each uniquely serialized, transparently tracked on the UWR public registry, and retired in real-time to support corporate sustainability claims and NetZero decarbonization pathways. This system effectively treats saved water as a tradable commodity or a green financial instrument, incentivizing industries to invest in and adopt water-efficient technologies and practices. The revenue generated from selling credits provides a direct financial return on their conservation efforts.

The launch of this marketplace positions Gujarat as a leader in innovative environmental governance and sets a precedent for other states and countries in Asia to follow in managing their precious water resources.

The Stablecoin Collateral Opportunity

A key innovation highlighted by the launch is the potential for water credits to serve as Real-World Asset (RWA) collateral for stablecoin minting. The robust verification framework, serialization protocol, and transparent on-chain token tracking inherent to UWR credits make them compelling candidates for backing digital currencies with tangible environmental value.

Kishore Butani, CTO-Director of UWR, elaborated on the digital finance implications: "Finance Minister Sitharaman's vision for stablecoins requires credible, transparent assets as collateral. Unlike the esoteric carbon credit market, our verified water credits - quantifiable, third-party audited, and registry-backed - represent exactly the type of real-world value, easily understood by institutional and retail investors, needed to underpin the next generation of asset-backed digital currencies. We're actively advancing discussions to bridge environmental integrity with financial innovation in decentralized markets."

Marketplace Features Driving Transparency

The UWRXpress platform incorporates several innovative features:

Direct e-commerce integration within the UWR registry enabling instant credit purchase and retirement
Seller-determined pricing model that ensures fair value recognition for conservation efforts
Zero transaction fees for buyers, supported by a fixed listing fee structure for UWR seller account holders (Read Marketplace Terms & Conditions)
Integrated water footprint calculator providing actionable insights for sustainable water management
QR-coded retirement certificates ensuring immutable, publicly verifiable environmental claims
Diverse project portfolio spanning water conservation initiatives across Asia and Latin America
The marketplace will showcase voluntary water credits from projects including artificial lake groundwater recharge initiatives by farmer foundations and wastewater recycling programs by educational institutions and corporate clients.

UWRXpress is now live at www.uwaterregistry.io, offering immediate access to verified water credits for environmental stewardship purposes while establishing the infrastructure for potential future applications in digital finance.

About Universal Water Registry (UWR):
Launched in 2022, Universal Water Registry has emerged as the leading global standard and registry for verified water credits. The organization establishes rigorous methodological frameworks, oversees independent third-party audits, and maintains the public ledger system that guarantees the integrity and uniqueness of every water credit issued under its certification.

Universal Water Offset Unit Private Limited (UWR)
Office #37, 3rd Floor, Darshanam Trade Centre #1,
Sayajigunj, Vadodara 390020, Gujarat, India.

UWR is the World's Premier Verified Water Credits Standard, Registry & Marketplace

This release was published on openPR.