New Jersey County Bets Big on Blockchain—$240B Property Records Head to Avalanche

A local government just made crypto’s case for legitimacy—by putting a quarter-trillion dollars of real-world assets on-chain.

Bergen County’s land registry is going full DeFi, tokenizing every deed, lien, and title on Avalanche’s subnet. No more dusty filing cabinets—just immutable smart contracts tracking 240 billion reasons why Web3 infrastructure matters.

Wall Street’s response? Probably still arguing about whether Bitcoin is a ’real asset’ while local governments eat their lunch.

Ransomware attacks in local government

The effort comes amid a rising number of ransomware attacks on local governments. In 2023, 23 municipalities in New Jersey reported experiencing cyberattacks, with some incurring recovery costs of up to $1 million, according to the Avalance.

Blockchain-based recordkeeping is being positioned as a more secure and efficient alternative.

The initiative is already expanding beyond Bergen County. Municipalities including Camden, Orange, Morristown, and Fort Lee are adopting or rolling out similar systems, collectively covering over 460,000 properties and an estimated $290 billion in real estate.

In Orange, the updated system reportedly helped uncover nearly $1 million in previously uncollected tax income. This marks one of the largest public-sector blockchain deployments in the U.S. to date.