RealBlocks, a blockchain-based platform for the real estate business, has completed a seed funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital, Cross Culture Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Science Inc., and Zelkova Ventures.
RealBlocks Users May Engage In P2P Trading
According to the announcement’s press release, a $3.1 million funding round was closed after receiving investments from well-known venture capital firms. The actual amounts invested by the companies was not disclosed.
As a decentralized real estate platform, RealBlocks allows users to tokenize shares of private equity and trade the tokens in local and international markets. RealBlocks’ users can also accept payments both in cryptocurrency and fiat money. Additionally, the RealBlocks network may be used to engage in peer-to-peer (P2P) trading through its bulletin board.
Commenting on his firm’s investment decision, Anthony Pompliano, the founder of Morgan Creek Digital, remarked:
2019 is going to be an incredibly important year for blockchain projects … One of our core theses at Morgan Creek Digital has been that every stock, bond, currency, and commodity will be tokenized at some point in the future.
“Accelerating Capital Formation” With Tokenization
Meanwhile, Perrin Quarshie, the founder and CEO of RealBlocks, said:
With the support of our strategic investors, we're accelerating development of our product and adoption of blockchain technology for real estate, an industry that previously hasn't seen much innovation. This is a great opportunity to improve the investment experience for both sponsors and investors while also minimizing friction throughout the entirety of the process.
As explained in the announcement, RealBlocks provides “more efficient access for investors” located outside of the US. This is intended to “accelerate capital formation for real estate sponsors.” RealBlocks’ users may also work with various established private equity firms throughout the world. Additionally, the RealBlocks platform “provides investors with a mechanism for obtaining liquidity via peer-to-peer (P2P) trading for an otherwise illiquid asset class.”
As mentioned, RealBlocks users receive either an “asset-backed token” or a share that “represents ownership” of a property or other type of offering. Users may trade the tokens on the RealBlocks platform through a built-in P2P “bulletin board.” Trades can reportedly be conducted with accredited investors throughout the world.
Morgan Creek Capital Backs Launch Of Cryptoasset Index Fund
Notably, RealBlocks was founded with the intention to allow investors to participate in the emerging token economy. Many prominent members of the crypto community including crypto exchange Binance founder Changpeng Zhao believe most industries will be tokenized in the future and real estate may be one of the traditional businesses that could potentially benefit from the tokenization of real-world assets.
In late August 2018, Morgan Creek Capital, an investment firm with over $1.5 billion in assets under management (AUM), helped launch Morgan Creek Digital’s cryptoasset index fund. The new fund allows accredited investors, pension funds, endowment managers and other types of institutional investors to gain direct exposure to major cryptoassets including bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).
