Hey, hello fellow coin friends, today we are going to talk about something new - real estate tokenization! This thing sounds high-end, but it actually turns houses into digital "stocks". Through blockchain technology, ordinary people like you and me can also get involved in the big pie of real estate. In recent years, the RWA (Real World Assets) track has been very popular, and real estate tokenization is one of the star projects. Today, I will show you how good this trend is and whether ordinary people can really get a piece of the pie.
Eight major projects, each with its own unique gameplay
Let’s first briefly review several well-known projects in real estate tokenization:
Hong Kong-based RealtyX uses DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to allow retail investors to become landlords;
DigitShares REX in the US dismantled a Miami mansion into pieces and sold it on the Polygon chain, and the SEC gave the green light;
Blocksquare in Europe directly connects with the land registry, ensuring full compliance;
Germany’s Fundament secured 250 million euros in tokenized bonds as early as 2019;
ATLANT is expanding globally and focusing on transaction efficiency;
Dubai’s Real Estate Tokenisation Project is backed by the government and is expected to account for 7% of the market by 2033;
Fortem went online on the exchange and started to circulate tokens;
Cesar in France is a student startup that aims at flexible investment.
The eight projects are diverse, but the core is the same: to "cut up" the houses so that more people can afford them.
RWA track: Why is real estate tokenization so popular?
Why has the RWA track been so hot in the past two years? To put it bluntly, blockchain technology has made "heavy" assets "light". Traditional real estate investment starts at several million yuan, and ordinary people can only sigh. But with tokenization, you can buy a "digital brick" for tens of dollars, and the liquidity is high. You can sell it whenever you want, without having to wait for the intermediary to talk.
In addition, the blockchain is transparent and open, and the transaction records are clear at a glance, making it difficult for scammers to mess up. Not to mention that global capital is looking for new outlets, and the cryptocurrency market is tired of speculation, so RWA, a down-to-earth way of playing, has naturally become a hot commodity.
Let's look at the data: Dubai expects that real estate tokenization will be able to leverage a market of 60 billion dirhams (about 16 billion US dollars) by 2033, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's HK$800 million tokenized green bond issued in 2023 also set a trend. What does this mean? Even the government has started to get involved. Real estate tokenization is not a small fight, but a real game changer.
There are many highlights, but also many pitfalls
Let's talk about the highlights first. Take RealtyX and Cesar as examples. Both projects focus on "low thresholds" and can be invested with just a few dozen dollars, which is especially suitable for young people to try. DigitShares and Fundament are more hardcore, directly obtaining compliance licenses from SEC and BaFIN, and their security is reassuring. Blocksquare 's land registration system connection is a stroke of genius. If it becomes popular in the future, token holders will directly become "legal landlords", saving worry and effort. Dubai's project proves the power of government support. Once the policy is relaxed, the market will explode.
But don't rush to pay, there are many pitfalls.
First of all, there is the issue of regulation. Blockchain sounds cool, but the laws of various countries have not caught up. For a global project like ATLANT , how should cross-border transactions be taxed? How should they be recognized? No one can tell.
Another example is technical risk. Blockchain security accidents have happened before. If the platform crashes, your "digital house" may become nothing. The biggest headache is liquidity. Tokenization facilitates buying and selling, but if you really want to cash out, you have to see if there is anyone to take over. Fortem is listed on the exchange, but if other projects don't have a secondary market, the tokens in your hands may be just decorations.
Can ordinary people play? See if you dare to gamble
At this point, what everyone is most concerned about is: Can I make money from this?
For ordinary people, the biggest temptation of real estate tokenization is "low cost and high return". For example, if the price of DigitShares ' Miami luxury house rises, you can also share the profits. You can invest with just a few dozen dollars, and you won't feel bad if you lose money. RealtyX 's DAO model also makes you feel involved, and you feel like you are not buying a house, but playing a financial game.
But on the other hand, the risks are also obvious: Is the project reliable? Will the policy change? Will the market accept it? These are all unknowns. For student startups like Cesar , the idea is good, but the reliability is questionable.
Future trends: an opportunity to overtake others?
From the trend point of view, real estate tokenization is definitely the highlight of the RWA track. The global real estate market is worth tens of trillions of dollars. Even if only 1% is tokenized, it is still an incremental market of hundreds of billions. Governments, enterprises, and retail investors are all scrambling for the beachhead, and the gameplay will become more and more diverse. For example, virtual real estate in the metaverse (such as Decentraland), although not a real house, is also considered a broad real estate tokenization, and young people are having a lot of fun. In the future, the physical and virtual may be connected to form a larger ecosystem.
For China, there is room for imagination. Hong Kong's RealtyX and green bonds have already taken the lead. If the mainland follows suit and combines the digital RMB to create a "Chinese-style real estate tokenization", the picture is too beautiful to imagine. However, in the short term, supervision is definitely the first hurdle, and stability is the top priority. Ordinary people may have to wait if they want to play.
In general, real estate tokenization is a new track with both opportunities and risks. If you want to try it out, you can try it with a small amount. But I suggest that most people wait and see until the policies and technologies mature. After all, a house is still a house even if it is digitized. Before buying it, you still have to ask: Is this "brick" solid? Well, let's stop here today. If you have any ideas, please leave a message and let's communicate together!
