This article has been updated to include comments from the press office of Lady Mone. The Aston Plaza in Dubai, a major bitcoin (BTC) real estate project, is reportedly pausing its operations, British daily news agency The Times reports on April 28. The $325 million project — developed by founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand Michelle Mone and her billionaire partner Douglas Barrowman back in 2017 — includes 1,300 luxury apartments, with at least 150 units planned to be sold in bitcoin. Touted as the first major development of this size to be available for purchase in cryptocurrency, the Aston …

Two major United Kingdom banks — Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) — have joined a trial using blockchain to streamline real estate purchasing after rethinking the technology’s potential, Bloomberg reported on April 4. The trial, which involved a total of 40 participants, used a tool from Instant Property Network (IPN), a startup using enterprise blockchain group R3’s Corda platform. Introducing blockchain into the real estate exchange arena worldwide could result in savings of $160 billion, IPN told Bloomberg, with the previously skeptical banks appearing to warm to this specific use case for blockchain. “We are near the end …

United States-based Blockchain Holdings Capital Ventures (BHCV) has partnered with SG Blocks, which uses cargo shipping containers in construction to develop its multi-container data centers, according to press release on April 1. The blockchain company, which focuses on real estate, energy and technology companies, will be SG Blocks’ sole partner in designing decentralized data centers. The first prototype is expected to appear in Q4 2019. BHCV eventually plans to open a distribution channel to scale data center production, of which the company is aiming to produce 150–200 by 2020. The majority of the centers will be fixed, but the company …

A crypto company has launched a new product that focuses on the tokenization of real-world assets, such as property, art and commodities — a venture it believes will transform the way the world invests, trades and transfers value. DGTO is the latest offering by Darico, and the firm says its service provides business owners and developers with “all the tools needed to tokenize assets into security tokens,” including legal and technical expertise as well as sales and marketing strategies. The parent company claims that its tokenization platform says it is in contact with regulators in different jurisdictions to ensure that …

Dubai-based real estate giant Emaar has announced plans to launch a token and is considering holding an initial coin offering (ICO) in Europe, English-language local media Arabian Business reports on March 11. Per the article, the token will be developed by Swiss blockchain startup Lykke, and will grant Emaar’s customers and stakeholders access to the referral and loyalty system across the entire company. Emaar is the largest real estate company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), responsible for the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Fountain, Dubai Mall and Dubai Opera. According to its Wikipedia page, Emaar Properties boasts a revenue of $5.83 …

Blockchain property transaction platform blockkimo Ltd along with two other companies have jointly completed “the first” real estate transaction on a blockchain in Switzerland. The development was announced by blockimmo in a blog post on Mar. 1. Blockimmo, proptech company Elea Labs Ltd. and digital assets service firm Swiss Crypto Tokens Ltd. have conducted a blockchain-based real estate transaction — consisting of 18 apartments and a restaurant — at a cost of 3 million Swiss francs ($2.98 million). The property was reportedly tokenized, which means that its real asset value is now represented digitally on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain in …

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) largest real estate development firm, Emaar Properties, has officially denied reports that it enabled crypto payments for property, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 20. Known for developing the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa — located in Dubai — the firm told Bloomberg that it currently accepts only fiat currencies, such as UAE Dirhams (AED) or United States dollars as payment for property purchases. The publication cited an Emaar Properties spokesperson as providing the confirmation. In the report, Bloomberg cited Australian crypto-focused website Micky as one of websites that initially reported that the real estate giant had …

The County Auditors’ Association of Ohio (CAAO) has announced the formation of a working group to study the use of blockchain for the effective transfer of property deeds. The news was reported on Feb. 21 by Ohio-based blockchain startup SafeChain — the technical advisor for the multi-county initiative. The association’s collaborative effort will reportedly test the use of blockchain technology to bring efficiency gains to the execution and management of real estate transactions and the transfer of land titles across multiple counties. Their ongoing projects will be reportedly be reviewed by SafeChain member Tony Franco as they work to set …

Property development firm New World Development and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) will jointly launch a blockchain platform for home buyers with the Bank of China reportedly being the first bank user. The news was announced by local news outlet the Standard on Feb. 20. The platform reportedly aims to replace paperwork operations — such as signing the Provisional Sale and Purchase Agreement or a mortgage application — with digital authorization. This will supposedly allow users to send the purchaser's authorized, encrypted and digitally signed provisional agreement to selected banks. Integration of distributed ledger technology …

Blockchain-based real estate platform RealBlocks has successfully closed a seed funding round backed by digital assets manager Morgan Creek Digital, a press release reveals Friday, Jan. 25. Per the announcement, a $3.1 million round was led by United States-based commerce company Science Inc. with participation from Morgan Creek Digital, Zelkova Ventures, Ulu Ventures, and Cross Culture Ventures. The specific amounts of investment were not disclosed. RealBlocks has designed a decentralized platform that tokenizes shares of private equity funds. It also allows real estate investors to sell shares at both domestic and international markets, accept payments in digital and fiat currencies, …

The suspect at the center of the U.S.’ first Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud case has pleaded guilty in court, in part settling a case seen as a bellwether for the country’s securities laws, Bloomberg reported Nov. 15. Maksim Zaslavskiy, who faces a sentence of up to 37 months after lying to investors who put funds into two ICOs last year, confirmed he had lied about aspects of his operations. The court case involves REcoin and Diamond Reserve Coin, which had claimed to be backed by real estate and diamonds respectively. Investors lost money when both coins imploded, Zaslavskiy and …

The Chinese city of Loudi has launched a blockchain platform to store real estate data, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, reports Nov. 13. The platform is backed by land, tax and real estate departments in the city, which is located in central Hunan province. Starting Nov. 15, the new system will let citizens avoid lines and other bureaucratic processes when submitting documents to the above-listed departments, the newspaper states. Also today, the first real estate electronic voucher was issued in the city via the new blockchain-based system. China is among the countries actively adopting blockchain technology on …