Junior crypto stock Byte Power has struck a deal to manage an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for a small Canadian gas explorer.

Byte Power is following DigitalX (ASX:DCC) — which has recently taken on four similar deals — into the ICO advisory game.

An ICO is like an initial public offering — but instead of offering shares in a company, an issuer offers digital tokens that can be traded on “cryptocurrency” platforms or for digital services. Bitcoin is the world’s most famous cryptocurrency.

Under the deal — just a Heads of Agreement at this stage — Byte Power will research the potential of issuing cryptocurrencies backed by assets such as natural gas, environmental processing or carbon credits.

Already in Canada, a new venture called CarbonX plans to take Certified Emission Reduction Credits into ERC20 tokens to reinvest in carbon reduction projects.

First ICO

Byte Power Group (ASX:BPG) chairman and CEO Alvin Phua says this is their first ICO advisory, and Byte Power and their new client Synstream Energy Corp were thrown together because he knows one of the major shareholders.

Synstream is a $C3 million ($3.1 million) company that’s part of a consortium to build Canada’s first commercial gas-to-liquids plant, which will turn natural gas into diesel.

To do this, they say on their website, they’ll have to raise money.

While the consortium is yet to put a number on how much the 420 barrel/day plant might cost, a report by global engineering company Black & Veatch this year said a 450 barrel/day plant cost around $55 million.

Exchange-traded crypto

Byte Power burst onto the blockchain bandwagon in June when it said it would build a cryptocurrency exchange.

It got the third degree from the ASX in November when its shares surged tenfold over two days, and promised testing of the platform would start before the end of 2017.

It said on Friday that “the development of the cryptocurrency exchange platform is progressing well” and that the scope of work was expanding to include better interfaces and extra design elements to ensure it meets regulatory requirements.

Mr Phua told Stockhead they plan to have a platform running by the end of the first quarter of 2018 and they’re on track do achieve that.

Byte Power’s shares closed Friday flat at 0.8c.