Press kit
Everything you need to write about CaratShares. Questions, interviews, demos: alex@caratshares.com — we reply within a day.
Boilerplate
CaratShares is a fractional-ownership platform for investment-grade coloured gemstones. Vaulted, lab-certified stones are tokenised at the carat level into "facets" and traded continuously on an on-chain order book settled on Base. A full working demo is live on testnet at caratshares.com.
CaratShares builds public-market infrastructure for coloured gemstones — a roughly $50B asset class that still trades privately, without continuous prices or fractional access. Each stone is held in insured vault custody and certified by an accredited laboratory (GIA, SSEF, Gübelin, AGL), then tokenised at the carat level into facets. Facets are issued through a First Light Offering (FLO) and trade 24/7 on an on-chain order book settled on Base. Holders govern custody, appraisals and sale decisions; the physical stone can ultimately be redeemed. The company publishes its market standards openly and is currently raising a pre-seed round.
Fast facts
| Founded | 2026, Denver, Colorado |
| Founder | Alex Chubuk (alex@caratshares.com) |
| Product | Fractional ownership + continuous on-chain order book for vaulted, certified coloured gemstones |
| Status | Full working demo on Base Sepolia testnet — catalogue, order books, governance, redemption. Mainnet launch follows the pre-seed round. |
| Key terms | First Light Offering (FLO) — primary issuance of a newly listed stone. Facet — the carat-level unit of ownership. |
| Stack | Solidity smart contracts on Base · insured vault custody · NAV by sworn appraisers with on-chain audit trail · NFT certificate per stone |
| Raise | $3M pre-seed, open — investor page, deck |
| Links | caratshares.com · white paper · X · LinkedIn |
Not to be confused with
CaratShares (also written "Carat Shares") is not affiliated with Karat Packaging Inc. (NASDAQ: KRT), the Carat media agency (Dentsu), Diamond Standard CARAT commodity tokens, the CARAT cryptocurrency, or any carsharing service.
Brand assets
Brand: "CaratShares", one word, capital C and S. The emblem is a green brilliant-cut gem on deep navy. Please don't recolour or stretch. Higher-resolution assets and founder photos on request.
Story angles we can speak to
- Why a $50B asset class still trades like it's the 16th century — and what its market infrastructure should look like
- Real-world-asset tokenization beyond treasuries and real estate: unique physical assets with vault custody
- Inventing market vocabulary from scratch: the FLO and the facet
- Building a two-sided market before mainnet: what an on-chain testnet demo can prove