Category: Real Estate

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Accommodation Blockchain Crypto News NFTs Real Estate

Crypto Community ‘Satoshi Island’ in Vanuatu is Offering Citizenship NFTs

Satoshi Island in Vanuatu is a real world blockchain use case where citizenship and all assets and rights are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on top of a decentralised financial system only operating in crypto.

In the South Pacific, nestled among the other islands of Vanuatu, there is a 297-hectare private holding called Satoshi Island under development to become a sustainable smart city dedicated to the crypto community.

Get Your Own Piece of Satoshi Island

The developers want to create a place where crypto enthusiasts and professionals can converge, with the goal of creating “the crypto capital of the world”. Individuals wanting to attain citizenship and own a piece of land on the island can do so by getting their hands on a Satoshi Island NFT:

The island will be built with blockchain technology at its heart, running the first real world crypto economy built on an entirely decentralised financial system and blockchain-based democracy. The developers of the island also welcome crypto projects to set up shop, offering the community networking opportunities and a way to live and work among like-minded people. With events planned all year round, inhabitants only need to keep their ear to the ground.

Concept house on Satoshi Island. Source: satoshi-island.com

With the first stage of development already completed, early visitors will be greeted by classic-style villas. As the project progresses, the island will be further developed with ultra-modern modular sustainable houses and offices designed by renowned Hong Kong-based architectural firm Cybertecture.

Concept offices on Satoshi Island. Source: satoshi-island.com

This idea is not unheard of; just last month, a group of cryptocurrency investors gathered capital through crowdfunding a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) to buy a tokenised island in the Bahamas.

Get a Citizenship NFT for Satoshi Island

Anyone can visit Satoshi Island, but by holding a Citizenship NFT there are exclusive benefits to be had. These NFTs will be limited to 21,000 and will be released in collections. First-edition citizenships will be granted via airdrop to early supporters of the project, as detailed on its website.

The benefits of holding a Citizenship NFT are:

  • voting rights on policies that govern the island;
  • access to long-term accommodation at lower rates not available to short-term visitors; and
  • citizenship holders with Land NFTs can develop property on their chosen space.

Island Has 2,100 Blocks of Land NFTs 

The island has been subdivided into 2100 unique blocks of land, which anyone can own by purchasing a Land NFT. Each block is large enough to build a house on and those who own multiple Land NFTs can combine them to develop office blocks, mansions, or even apartment complexes to add to a unique property portfolio.

The private opening is envisaged for Q4 2022 with the public opening scheduled for Q1 2023. Once Satoshi Island is privately opened, citizens can visit short-term. After it is publicly opened, properties can be developed, occupied, or rented out to short and long-stay guests.

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Crypto News Events Metaverse NFTs Real Estate

New Year’s Eve Takes Place in Decentraland This Year

During unprecedented times such as the Covid-19 pandemic, large gatherings of people have had to come up with creative ways to remain safe and still enjoy themselves. New York City’s iconic New Year’s Eve Ball Drop is just one major event to have suffered the perils of the pandemic.

The virtual event, dubbed ‘MetaFest 2022‘, will include non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries, rooftop VIP lounges, and virtual musical performances. Virtual billboards will tie the experience to the event’s metaverse counterpart via live streams from New York City.

NYE Comes to Decentraland

On December 29, DCG and Jamestown announced their intention to recreate a significant cultural site within the metaverse – One Times Square. The 26-storey building in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square is home to the annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop celebration, now limited to 15,000 socially distanced and fully vaccinated attendees due to a rise in the number of Covid cases in New York.

NYE Ball Drop in Decentraland.

According to Simon Koster, DCG’s head of real estate, “This event highlights how virtual events can cohesively integrate with real ones in an effort to bring once-in-a-lifetime experiences to so many that would have never been able to participate otherwise.”

‘MetaFest2022’ is not the first event to take to the metaverse. As also reported this week by Crypto News Australia, a new project called Animal Concerts is building a virtual touring company to host VR live music events in the metaverse.

“The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment,” said Jamestown president Michael Phillips. “Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences.”

To join in on the experience, users can create personalised avatars and explore the Times Square Plaza.

More and More Moving into the Metaverse

As the metaverse continues to explode, more and more industries are moving into the digital space and many are choosing the Decentraland metaverse to facilitate their move. In November, the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would become the first sovereign nation to have a digital embassy in the metaverse, forging an agreement with Decentraland to host it.  

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Real Estate

DAO to Buy Blockbuster Video and Offer Decentralised Film Streaming

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and attempting to buy historical artifacts are catching on in late 2021. Last month, ConstitutionDAO attempted to purchase a rare first-edition copy of the US Constitution, and now a new DAO, BlockbusterDAO, is trying to buy one of the best-known pre-digital brands of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Big Plans for Blockbuster LLC

After ConstitutionDAO was outbid by former Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin, a new DAO – BlockbusterDAO – announced its intention to purchase the iconic video brand. According to its Twitter feed, the DAO wants to ultimately create a decentralised film streaming service, with additional plans for movie financing and production down the line.

The thread also explained why BlockbusterDAO intends to go through with the purchase:

The Blockbuster brand is not only nostalgic, it’s a historic landmark in the history of film. Despite its 1/1 brand recognition, the company was destroyed by terrible leadership with an inability to pivot and make dynamic business decisions.

BlockbusterDAO, Twitter

To achieve its goals, BlockbusterDAO wants to raise US$5 million to purchase the brand from Dish Network, a US television provider which acquired Blockbuster in 2011. The DAO aims to raise the finance by selling BlockbusterDAO non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for 0.13 ETH each (US$494 at the time of writing).

Although ConstitutionDAO was unsuccessful in its efforts to purchase a copy of the US Constitution, the group is now giving donors a choice – to either accept refunds, or remain in the DAO and receive a “We The People” (WTP) governance token.

DAOs: the New-Age Crowdfunding Solution

As DAOs continue to gain popularity for various reasons, capital raising seems to be the most prominent. For those wishing to buy a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, or an island in the Caribbean, for instance, but don’t necessarily have US$50 million lying around, DAOs are the perfect way for individuals to realise such dreams.

DAOs – the new-age crowdfunding solution – show what a community of people can do when they band together to achieve a collective goal.

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Crypto News DAO Real Estate Tokens

Crypto Investors Are Creating a DAO to Buy a Caribbean Island

A group of cryptocurrency investors is buying an island and decentralising it for its community. Anyone can participate in the crowdfunding by holding at least one token from the DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation).

First Crypto Island in the Bahamas

Crypto Island is a group of investors that incentivises business, nonprofits and individuals to join its DAO of over 22,000 members. The Crypto Island DAO was born after the success of ConstitutionDAO.

Through crowdfunding, the DAO plans to buy a private island in the Bahamas – Little Whale Cay, 37.6 hectares in the Berry Island group – with a price tag of US$35 million. This would be the first decentralised and community-owned island, with every member of the DAO having membership rights by holding CISLA.

CISLA can be bought only with BNB on PancakeSwap. Members of the DAO will co-own the fully operational private island with its own airstrip. The DAO has already completed all the necessary negotiation and legal works. New investors only need to buy the token to help the DAO reach its US$35 million goal to buy the island.

Benefits of Tokenising Properties

The tokenisation of properties is an emerging real-estate ownership alternative with a wide set of benefits. To name a few, it provides higher liquidity for investors, making it a more accessible market for everyone, along with the benefits of using blockchain technology such as transparency and cheaper transactions.

As Crypto News Australia reported in September, HeroX announced the first tokenisation of property in Australia, offering at least a partial solution to the relatively illiquid real estate market.

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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Play to Earn Real Estate Tokens

Metaverse Token SAND Hits All-Time Highs as Play-to-Earn Game Nears Alpha Launch

The Sandbox (SAND), Animoca Brands’ virtual property and gaming project, has announced its highly anticipated Metaverse Alpha event starting later this month. Following the announcement, SAND prices have surged to new all-time highs.

Play-to-Earn Metaverse Event

After four years of development, the Sandbox (SAND) team’s play-to-earn (P2E) Sandbox Alpha event will allow players the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse for the first time. The virtual gaming world enables users to monetise their time spent in the metaverse via a P2E model. Players can purchase land and create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the game and earn Sandbox tokens (SAND) by completing various quests.

The Sandbox Alpha Hub launches on November 29 and closes on December 20. Players who want to take part in the event will need to get their hands on an Alpha Pass, the NFT ticket that will grant full access to the multi-week event to 5000 people. Golden tickets will be on sale on OpenSea’s secondary market between November 29 and December 19.

Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations, quests, and the opportunity to connect with other players from the community. However, they will not be eligible to earn P2E rewards.

Prizes to be Won in the Alpha

Owners of the Alpha Pass will have the opportunity to earn 1,000 SAND for completing all objectives of the Alpha. Additionally, pass owners have special access to three exclusive The Sandbox Alpha NFTs, which will only be available during the Alpha event.

NFT prizes for owners of the Alpha Pass: The Sandbox

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu cautioned future investors that they should take the time to carefully experience The Sandbox before buying tokenised land:

Just go to the places, experience them, join the community on Discord, have a chat with them. See what it’s all about before you make the plunge to buy land because, you know, it’s like buying real estate anywhere in the world.

 Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman, Animoca Brands

Metaverse Token Explodes

According to data from CoinGecko, the price of SAND hit a new all-time high of US$3.97 on November 18. SAND has been on a meteoric surge in 2021, gaining 10,545 percent over the past 12 months. Earlier this month ,the SAND token pumped 158 per cent following the Facebook metaverse announcement.

SAND/USD price chart. Source: CoinGecko

At the start of this month, The Sandbox closed a US$93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The project has been in development for four years and will launch its metaverse in “phased stages” moving forward.

With the idea of the metaverse inching its way into the public sphere, more people are taking part. Barbados recently established the first-ever metaverse embassy as part of its aggressive expansion to build infrastructure and purchase digital land.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Real Estate

Bitcoin Surges to New All-Time High Amid Highest Inflation Levels in 31 Years

Over the past year, the US Federal Reserve has repeated the line that inflation is “transitory”, so much so that it became a meme. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics would however suggest that inflation may be more sticky than expected. For the 12 months to October 2021, the CPI hit 6.2 percent, the highest rate recorded in 31 years.

“Transitory” inflation. Source: Twitter, @Bitcoinbaddie

“Transitory” Inflation

In June this year, US inflation hit 5.4 percent, the highest recorded level since 2008. Notwithstanding, the Federal Reserve and US politicians continued to push the narrative that this was “transitory” and due to short-term, pandemic-related supply bottlenecks. In some cases, they even argued that inflation was a good thing.

As per the latest report, the inflation increase was “broad-based”, although energy and used car prices recorded exceptionally high double-digit increases.

CPI. Source: US Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Bitcoin Soars on Inflation News

Upon news of US inflation numbers recording their highest level in over three decades, bitcoin, which is viewed as a store of value and inflation hedge, rose over US$3,000 within hours to print a new all-time of US$69,044.

Shortly after, however, it dipped sharply and at the time of writing was trading at US$64,894 with US$70,000 appearing to be the next psychological resistance-level to overcome.

Bitcoin chart. Source: Coingecko

Gold, bitcoin’s analogue equivalent and more traditional inflation hedge, broke above a long-held resistance at US$1,830 to trade at a five-month high of $1,853. Michael Saylor, however, remained convinced that gold wasn’t the solution to these historic inflationary times:

How Are Things Faring In Australia?

Comparatively speaking, Australia would appear to be doing better than the US, considering the RBA’s latest CPI data that inflation is at 3 percent. This remains at the upper band of the RBA’s target of 2-3 percent inflation.

CPI. Source: RBA

However, it isn’t all good news, as Australians are currently paying record prices for fuel and housing. RBA data shows that across all capital cities, real estate prices have grown between 14-20 percent year-on-year. In more affluent and high-demand areas, there is evidence of house prices increasing by a staggering 30 percent per annum.

As home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach of young Australians, it is no surprise that many have turned to crypto to help make up for lost ground.

Given that BTC holders are currently enjoying a 317 percent increase over the past year, compared to ETH’s stellar performance of 907 percent over the same period, crypto may well offer a solution to both inflation and rampant house price growth.

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Australia Crypto News Real Estate Tokens

HeroX Announces the Tokenisation of the First Property in Australia

House price affordability remains a perennial issue in Australia without an obvious solution. One innovative property development company, HeroX, appears to offer a partial solution at least as it seeks to disrupt the global real estate market with the tokenisation of the first property in Australia.

Artist’s impression of one of four luxury townhouses in HeroX Templestowe Park, Victoria

Tokenisation in Real Estate an Inevitability

As we shift from an industrial to a digital-led economy, tokenisation of real world assets appears to be all but inevitable, particularly for those paying attention.

Basically, I have for a long time been talking about [how] we can tokenise everything conceptually. What does this all mean? It basically means the breakthrough has been made to attach intellectual property, or physical assets, or digital assets, to a blockchain in a method that is transferable, instantaneously, to anybody, and storable, and proven in its store.

Raoul Pal, Real Vision CEO

The tokenisation of real estate is just the latest example of a trend that includes art, fine wine, whisky, collectible cards, collectible cars or pretty much anything that is both valuable and scarce.


Property tokens are digital representations of properties and their financial interests, such as their capital growth and yield. They are supported using distributed ledger technology and smart contracts.

HeroX

The company claims that tokenisation (or fractionalisation) lowers the barriers to entry for investment by enabling access to a wider pool of investors. The relative inaccessibility of real estate as an asset class is but one of the reasons many Aussie millennials prefer crypto over real estate. If you’re looking for proof, consider August’s Core Logic Home Value Index, which showed that Australia’s house price index grew by 16.1 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest growth in national housing values since February 2004.

Additional benefits of tokenisation include complete transparency and liquidity. This has the potential to negate the obvious downsides of investing in real estate – namely that you need a lot of capital (ie, highly concentrated), and further, that it is an illiquid asset with high transactional costs.

It will be worth watching to see how traditional lenders respond to tokenisation. For now, it looks unlikely that you will be able to borrow against your token. This is arguably one of the disadvantages of tokenised real estate – you aren’t likely to be able to access cheap and freely available credit.

Notwithstanding, the possibility to diversify one’s investments in a thriving asset class within a liquid market will undoubtedly be attractive to first-time and seasoned investors alike.

HeroX Launches First Tokenised Property in Australia


To get the ball rolling, there are four simple steps to becoming an investor within HeroX’s new luxury development:

  • 1) Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks are performed for every potential investor to confirm the identity of investors and ensure they comply with the requirements of Australia’s regulations.
  • 2) Invest – buy one of the 20 tokens available.
  • 3) Get paid, every month, your share of the rental yield.
  • 4) Trade – leveraging HeroX’s secondary market to trade your tokens.

To learn more about HeroX and how to get involved, visit its website for further details.

Crypto and Real Estate Intersect

Tokenisation is only one example of how the worlds of crypto and real estate are beginning to collide.

Some companies have started accepting bitcoin as payment for rent and increasingly, owners around the world are accepting bitcoin for the sale of their properties. Even within finance markets we’ve seen some major shifts as one company in the US is now allowing for bitcoin-backed refinance loans.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Investing Real Estate

31% of Gen Z Australians Own Crypto According to Latest Report

The days of traditional finance are numbered, with cryptocurrencies expected to overtake fiat in Australia by 2029. A new report also reveals Australians have amassed over A$7 billion in crypto with 31 percent of the Gen Z population leading the investment charge, a figure that has doubled since January.

Overall, 17 per cent of Australians own cryptocurrency, according to the report from comparison site Finder, while a further 13 per cent said they intended to buy digital assets within the next year.

Bitcoin Is Still the Boss

The average Australian investor owns A$2,078 in crypto assets, with Bitcoin (held by 9 percent of Aussies) still the most popular currency ahead of Ethereum (8 percent), Dogecoin (5 percent) and Bitcoin Cash (4 percent).

Finder’s cryptocurrency expert James Edwards says Gen Z’s investment profile signals that traditional finance is being phased out. He makes a bold prediction for the future of crypto in Australia:

Many Aussies are now much more clear on the benefits cryptocurrencies offer, such as bitcoin being a hedge against fiat currency and inflation, plus the ability to earn interest on assets through things like stablecoins and decentralised finance on Ethereum. We should expect to see [crypto] as a dominant financial industry by the end of the decade, especially among younger generations who have never had meaningful access to traditional finance.

James Edwards, cryptocurrency expert, Finder

Crypto Investment Overtakes Real Estate Among Younger Demographics

The Finder report notes that the proportion of Australians (17 percent) who own crypto is now identical to the cohort who own two investment properties. Talking about house and property prices has long been a national pastime but it seems that investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is what Australians are really up to.

In June, Crypto News Australia reported how 40 percent of Australian millennials prefer to invest in digital assets over real estate. A survey of more than 1000 investors conducted in the same month by fund manager Vanguard Australia showed that millennials are the biggest cohort that own crypto assets.

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Blockchain Crypto News Real Estate VeChain

Real Estate Giant Inks Deal With VeChain in Blockchain Sustainability Push

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL), a global commercial real estate services company with offices in 80 countries, has recently partnered with blockchain platform VeChain as part of the company’s greater push towards sustainability.

VeChain Steers JLL Towards Sustainability

As JLL is a real estate services provider and rational commercial actor, this push is no doubt driven by increased levels of client demand for sustainability practices within the sector.

In JLL’s recent China-focused sustainability report , it found that 66 percent of Chinese corporations have incorporated carbon emissions reductions into their real estate strategy. In addition, it also found that the vast majority of occupiers proactively planned to prioritise locations that would help them reduce carbon emissions in the future.

The big challenge, however, was the “lack of consistent and validated carbon data” which posed a “huge reporting challenge”. What’s the point of going green if you can’t prove it to your shareholders?

VeChain was sought as a solution to help deliver consistent and transparent data and help the company move towards its net-zero carbon goal.

Reimagining Building Management

In reimaging how blockchain could manage an entire building, VeChain considered three main scenarios:

1. For Owners/Developers – Easy Traceability of Full Lifecycle Carbon Footprint

Blockchain could help with the authenticity, consistency and integrity of carbon emissions data generated during the construction, operation, maintenance and renovation/demolition phases of a building.

2. For Enterprise Tenants – Better Choice of Green Office Space With a ‘Carbon Label’

For corporate tenants with sustainability goals, choosing green office space with a transparent carbon label will help companies demonstrate responsibility to reduce associated carbon emissions.

3. For Enterprise Employees – Incentives For Low-Carbon Behaviour

Blockchain technology, combined with computing models provided by third-party services, can effectively and authentically record individual behaviours and transform data into value which can be rewarded and used to incentivise action by tenants or employees of the tenants.

Other VeChain Use Cases

Vechain describes itself as a public blockchain providing the “best resources to anyone who wants to solve real world economic problems”.

Earlier this year, micro-nation San Marino leveraged VeChain for the issuance of its NFT-based digital vaccine passports, while a Danish company used it to verify the removal of over three tonnes of plastic waste from the ocean.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Real Estate

Aussies Turn to Crypto as Wages Growth Lags in Australia

For many Australians, the dream of owning their own home is becoming more distant from reality as house prices soar and wages fail to keep pace with the CPI.

Wages have been out of step with inflation for years now and the cost of living in Australia continues to go up, with job insecurity also at an all-time high. Meanwhile the property market is booming as interest rates remain historically low.

For anyone looking to get into the housing market, accumulating enough money for a deposit has become an unfair race as prices are likely to grow well above 10 per cent in the time it takes to save. The chart below illustrates the problem:

Wages will not keep pace with the cost of living. When the cost of living is set to grow quicker than wages, families will be forced to make difficult decisions.

Jim Chalmers, shadow treasurer, Australian Labor Party

Australia Wage Growth Falls to 0.4% On Par with GFC Levels 

Wages growth in the June quarter fell to just 0.4 per cent, on par with the depths of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis which, until the Covid-19 recession in 2020 (now spilling well into 2021), was considered the most serious economic downturn since the 1930s Great Depression.

Last quarter wage data shows that at 1.7 percent, wages growth across 2020-21 was only just over half the 3 percent level the Reserve Bank of Australia considered necessary to lift inflation to within its target band and trigger a rise in interest rates. Additionally, real wages (the difference between wage growth and inflation) have fallen by 2.1 percent, the largest drop in 20 years.

Tokenised Real Estate is the Future

Increasing numbers have turned to cryptocurrency as a means to become financially free, or at least give it a go. Recent data shows that 40 percent of Australian millennials now prefer to invest in crypto over real estate. There is also a growing demand for workers choosing to be paid in crypto.

Because cryptocurrency is tokenised, it makes it an attractive asset class for millennials and anybody else who is curious about investing and trading, because you don’t have to buy a whole piece – you can just own a part of a bitcoin, for example.

As real estate investment now seems out of reach for many, crypto will help to revolutionise the industry and make it more accessible for those who want to buy property “shares”. Tokenisation of real estate is an inevitable next chapter in blockchain’s disruption of capital markets.