Bitcoin payments for real estate gain traction as crypto holders seek monetization

Crypto investors are betting big on real estate this year as the cryptocurrency market continues to grow. New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) recently conducted a survey that found that 46 million Americans own Bitcoin, equating to 22% of all adults. While optimistic, some cryptocurrency investors have expressed concerns regarding the security, custody and volatility of digital assets.

For example, Nickel Digital Asset Management, a regulated European investment manager dedicated to the crypto market, surveyed institutional investors and wealth managers from the United States and Europe who collectively have $275 billion in assets under management. Findings show that 76% of these individuals are concerned about the security of their digital assets. The same percentage said this about the size of the market and liquidity, followed by 71% who see the regulatory environment for the crypto market as a major issue.

This in mind, many crypto holders have started investing Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies into less risky assets such as real estate. Ben Shaoul, managing partner of Magnum Real Estate Group, told Cointelegraph that the company has recently been receiving more requests to sell real estate to cryptocurrency holders. According to Shaoul, Magnum began conducting crypto for real estate transactions about three years ago:

“We hadn’t tackled this before since most real estate developers didn’t understand crypto paymements. But we understood what it meant and how we could structure a sale for cryptocurrency. With the help of our legal team, we figured out how to conduct crypto transactions with the consent of regulators. We first sold a few residential units and then we sold a retail condominium in New York about three years ago for cryptocurrency.”

Eric Hedvat, chief operating officer of Jet Real Estate and a special consultant for Magnum, further told Cointelegraph that given the fast-paced growth of today’s crypto market, BTC payments for real estate is more important than ever before since it offers crypto investors an opportunity to grow with cash flow: “The cryptocurrency market has created a vast network of new wealth that wants to find traditional assets to invest in like real estate. There also aren’t many commercial properties for sale to buy with Bitcoin.”

Specifically speaking, Shaoul noted that the income generated from the retail condominium building that Magnum sold for $15.3 million in BTC during 2019 is all credit. “M&T bank has been a tenant in this building since it was built. They are a multi-billion-dollar bank.” This is an important detail, as Shaoul further commented that individuals who have created new wealth with cryptocurrency don’t have a way to monetize it or create a steady income stream:

“This property has over a million dollars a year of free cash flow. This is a very attractive offering for someone sitting on wealth they’ve created in cryptocurrency. This gives them an opportunity to monetize and effectively collect a bond moving forward.”

This has especially become the case due to interest rates in the United States. To put this in perspective, a recent survey conducted by the Financial Times and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business found that elevated inflation may make the Federal Reserve raise U.S. interest rates at least twice by the end of 2023. “In an environment where interest rates are where they are now, you can’t monetize into cash and leave your money in the bank and convert,” Shaoul said, adding that as a result, Magnum has been seeing a lot of cash move out of both the crypto and equities markets into hard assets such as real estate.

Piper Moretti, CEO and founder of The Crypto Realty Group, told Cointelegraph that crypto for real estate transactions is indeed becoming more common. Moretti shared that her firm currently has real estate listings available for Bitcoin in Tulum, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica….