This new world of “crypto” has countless buzz words that can make it hard to digest. So, rather than plug those buzz words I’m going to attempt to simplify it. Let’s break this down one piece at a time because this isn’t all for naught. The phone, the television and the internet have all had a large group of doubters and we’ve seen how that has turned out.  Crypto will be leading us into another new era of change with blockchain and autonomy! What are blockchain and autonomy?  In due time… first we start with the most important factor, Bitcoin (BTC).

BTC is the big boy in the crypto space because it was THE very first crypto-currency. Today, it is most relevant as a store of value just like gold.  Calling BTC a crypto-currency may end up being a misnomer.  Recent news that El Salvador has officially adopted BTC as legal tender has shifted the narrative back to BTC as a currency but this will be the testing grounds and the world is watching to see how it unfolds. It is normal for new technologies to evolve and change but currently, the best function for BTC is as digital gold. The reason? BTC has strong metrics that protect holders from the inflationary environment of the monetary policy of central banks.  This basically means when the US Treasury prints and adds more money supply to pay for “things”, the dollar value of BTC goes up. This protects BTC holder’s purchasing power.  Why?  Just like gold, BTC is scarce and has a cost to “mine” it.  It was also designed to only ever have 21 million BTC in existence and the supply added to the market (or mined) gets cut in half every 4 years. This limited supply is the opposite of dollars (ie. QE infinity) and therefore pushes the dollar value of each BTC up while the purchasing power of each dollar goes down.  That is why each BTC will continue to grow in dollar value, giving it more purchasing power and working great as a store of value.

Understanding general economics is extremely beneficial in the real estate industry.  Learning how BTC fits into this equation is paramount to the big picture. Like real estate, BTC has been a great wealth-building strategy, and using these two assets in tandem could serve as a powerful and strategic financial alliance.  Using BTC to build and preserve wealth is swiftly making its way across all demographics and understanding the technology and its global economic relevance will pay off in unimaginable ways as it leads us into a very new world!

Crypto and Real Estate

On January 3, 2009, BITCOIN was born. I was not among the first adopters but I have been in the crypto space since 2016 and I’ve been avidly investing since 2017. Back then, most people gave me the side-eye when they learned I was investing in crypto-currency because at the time a majority of the reporting connected it to the dark web and criminal activity. In 4 short years, everything has changed and now there are thousands more crypto-currencies, many new sectors and people’s opinions are evolving rapidly.

I am an Associate Broker with Tru Realty and we are preparing right now for transactions using crypto-currencies… but buying property with crypto is just the beginning. Crypto is an entirely new asset class and it will be much more than just another medium of exchange. Within real estate, some of the most relevant topics are NFT’s, DeFi, oracles, smart contracts, stable coins, blockchain, CBDC’s and much more. Essentially, the hardest part of introducing crypto is connecting the two worlds. Introducing the legal and tax implications of real estate to crypto investors and in reverse introducing the unique features of crypto assets to real estate owners.

The information gap between these two worlds can be significant but the need to fill the gap with professional guidance will be even more significant. Start by researching sites like propy.com. Propy can work as a marketing platform similar to Zillow but also as transaction management. Propy is also on the forefront of change involving crypto so you’ll learn a lot by following their content online.

If you’re new to crypto don’t try to take it all in at once; just start with understanding the basics. Crypto is evolving at a rapid pace as it is being accepted by the main stream and regulators. I’ll follow up here with more content soon to help you understand everything better because soon you’ll likely be fielding questions about crypto and how it effects real estate!