On Wednesday (April 27), design-focused global real estate investment and management company Jamestown announced that it had decided to allow crypto to be used for rent payments.
Here is some information about Jamestown from its website:
“Jamestown employs approximately 480 people worldwide with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and Cologne, Germany. The company has offices in Amsterdam, Bogotá, Boston, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1983, Jamestown has executed transactions in excess of $35 billion. As of March 31st 2022, the company has assets under management of $13.2 billion.”
According to a report by “What Atlanta Now”, Jamestown said that it “now accept rent payments in the form of cryptocurrency through a new partnership with BitPay.” Apparently, “the program includes Jamestown’s properties in the United States and a plan to expand to Europe.”
Crypto payment processor BitPay, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. The goal was “to make it easy for businesses to accept bitcoin payments,” and by September 2013, over 10,000 merchants were accepting Bitcoin (BTC) with the help of BitPay. Currently, the company claims to be “the largest bitcoin payment processor in the world, serving businesses on 6 continents.” Amongst its backers are Index Ventures, Founders Fund, and Felicis Ventures.
The report went on to say that according to the firm’s press release, Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown, had this to say:
“Blockchain technology and the digital assets it enables, like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, are key components to the evolution of real estate. Allowing for cryptocurrency payments is part of our commitment to innovation and larger digital asset strategy to optimize and maximize our physical real estate through technology and virtual integrations.“
Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay, stated:
“In today’s world, customers want to pay for day-to-day items like food and rent in bitcoin or ethereum, and working with Jamestown lets them not only live life on crypto, but live and work in transformed spaces and innovation hubs across major cities.“
BitPay will “serve as the intermediary exchange between Jamestown and its tenants for all aspects of the rent payment program,” meaning that Jamestown “will not receive or hold cryptocurrencies.”
The report also mentioned that this program “includes Jamestown’s real estate assets throughout the United States, representing approximately 26 million square feet, as well as plans to expand to the firm’s assets in Europe.” A few examples of properties included in this program are “Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Ballston Exchange in Arlington, and Levi’s Plaza in San Francisco.”
Furthermore, Jamestown is “connecting retail tenants with BitPay for an elective cryptocurrency payment services program to patrons and exploring direct deposit programs in which its employees could opt to be paid partially in cryptocurrencies.”
Via BitPay, Jamestown will “accept rent payments in a range of cryptocurrencies that initially include Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and five USD-pegged stablecoins (GUSD, USDC, USDP, DAI, and BUSD).”
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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