Crypto Payments for Real Estate?

There is no denying that one of the things that can make cryptocurrencies make an impact in today’s world is mass adoption. Mass adoption is key towards growing the industry. If you will ask the likes of Vitalik Buterin, he believes that the crypto market is putting so much attention on a possible Bitcoin ETF that they are forgetting something that is more important for the industry—mass adoption.

Today, there is no denying that there are cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Ripple are gunning towards mass adoption. You have Ripple that has been attempting to build partnerships with banks and even with companies such as Western Union.

Real Estate and Cryptocurrency

One market that could probably adopt cryptos is the real estate market. According to Jim Merrion who works as a Boulder County real estate agent, he said that “Blockchain and cryptocurrency really has the ability to change every aspect of real estate, from titles, to lending, to brokerage itself”. He also added that “This technology is finally mainstream enough in the real estate community that people are really talking about it and considering the implications and benefits”.

Bitcoin was able to reach the mainstream especially last year. In 2017, from just around $1,000, it was able to reach near $20,000 by mid-December. And for this reason, many became interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. In addition to this, there are those that have gained a significant amount from their blockchain venture.

If you are going to ask Meisner, “This (technology) is finally mainstream enough in the real estate community that people are really talking about it and considering the implications and benefits”. Merrion himself first dipped into the world of blockchain in 2012 and invested in Bitcoin. The only catch was that he sold his bitcoins way too early.

Chinese Crypto Millionaires

There is already a trend among crypto millionaires especially those from China going after US real estate properties. Considering that the Chinese government has clamped down on crypto-related activities, many are looking to translate the money either in foreign currencies or to buy real estate elsewhere.

According to one report: “We’re seeing that more and more people are willing to buy properties with cryptocurrencies because it’s getting easier to get their money out of the country using bitcoin, rather than establishing a bank account based in Hong Kong and getting their money out of the country using business channels”.

There are a lot of businesses today that are accepting cryptocurrencies. And in reality, it isn’t far from reality that the real estate market will openly accept cryptocurrencies one day. According to Alan Curtis who used to work for Innosphere and last year founded Radar Relay, a wallet-to-wallet crypto exchange tech company, “A lot of smart business people are using this technology to tackle really important things like real estate”.

But of course, there are a lot of issues surrounding cryptocurrencies. For instance, there are the wild price swings. During the time when there was so much hype about a possible Bitcoin ETF, Bitcoin went up to around $8,500. However, after the SEC postponed its decision on Bitcoin ETFs, the price even went below $6,000.