Blockchain Just Killed Your Realtor—Here’s How

Forget open houses and 6% commissions—deeds are going digital as tokenized real estate hits its stride. Propy’s record-breaking $5M blockchain home sale wasn’t a fluke; it was a warning shot.

Why it matters: Fractional ownership cuts out middlemen like a hot knife through bureaucratic butter. Suddenly that $10M Malibu villa becomes 10,000 affordable slices—with liquidity that puts traditional REITs to shame.

The catch? Regulators still can’t decide if your condo NFT is a security or a digital Beanie Baby. Meanwhile, Wall Street quietly tokenizes entire skyscrapers while retail investors fight over pixelated ape houses.

One thing’s certain: when the dust settles, the only thing ’listed’ will be on-chain—and your local real estate agent will be updating their LinkedIn profile.

Meanwhile, global tensions — particularly concerns over U.S. import tariffs under President Donald Trump — have heightened interest in blockchain-based assets. Juan Pellicer from IntoTheBlock noted that assets like stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets have become attractive SAFE havens. Tokenized gold trading volume, for instance, recently broke past $1 billion, reaching its highest level since the banking turmoil of early 2023.

As adoption grows, some industry figures believe regulators will eventually catch up. Yin compared the trajectory of tokenization to Uber’s early days, suggesting that increased usage will naturally prompt clearer rules. He stressed that ensuring tokenized assets meet international compliance standards will be crucial for broader acceptance.

However, not everyone is convinced that real estate is the ideal target for blockchain tokenization. Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, Securitize COO Michael Sonnenshein argued that while blockchain could streamline parts of the real estate process, the current demand is for assets with greater liquidity rather than traditional property holdings.