A young resident from Queensland, Australia played the long game of accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) over several years to eventually overcome the soaring real estate prices during the 2020 bull run and own his dream home. The 23-year-old Loi Nguyen started his journey as an investor back in 2017 by purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of BTC, ETH and traditional stocks. However, his interest in crypto reached new heights while pursuing an Economics degree: “Crypto came back into my life when I did a course at the uni on inflation. I learned that Bitcoin can be disinflationary.” …

Real estate in the metaverse is booming, but will it last? It’s no secret that investors are spending millions on metaverse real estate. But one must wonder if these investments are based on a fad. While there has always been speculative interest in metaverse properties, since projects like Decentraland launched, interest shot up upon Facebook’s name change to Meta. The social media entity has certainly faced some controversy, but there’s no denying its potential easy access to metaverse content with its consumer-priced Oculus VR headset. In November 2021, the Metaverse Group, an NFT-based real estate company, invested $2.43 million to …

NFTs continue to make an impact on multiple sectors, and this mainstreaming is opening up new opportunities and revealing new trends for blockchain technology. Recently, the real estate sector has shown interest in blockchain technology because it opens up the potential for fractionalized ownership, cryptocurrency-backed mortgages and other unique ownership, financing and payment models. Here’s a look at a few real estate-oriented blockchain projects that are to integrate decentralized finance, cryptocurrency payments and nonfungible tokens (NFT) to the sector. Propy Propy is the largest real estate-focused protocol in the cryptocurrency market, and it’s focused on automating home buying and making …

Mark Zuckerberg might claim the Metaverse is the future — but in the eyes of others, the future has already begun. Science fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the term “Metaverse” back in his 1994 novel, Snow Crash. Within the pages, the main character, Hiro Protagonist, navigates through the virtual world. Since 2003, millions have also worked, played and socialized in the Metaverse within the online Second Life world. While the game, with a heyday in the first decade of the 2000s and featuring some blocky graphics is a far cry from the modern Metaverse vision laid out by companies like …

The team behind one of the top memecoin projects Shiba Inu (SHIB) is rolling out tokenized real estate dubbed “Shiba Lands” as part of its upcoming metaverse project. Shiba’s upcoming metaverse is yet to receive a name, with the team referring to it as the “Shiberse,” and stating that the official title will be revealed later this month. The launch date for the tokenized land sales and auctions is also set to be announced soon and hodlers of the LEASH token (which is available via Shiba Swap) will be granted first access to the land sale events. After the first …

Rock legend Gene Simmons says he will accept crypto payments for the sale of his $13.5 million mansion in Las Vegas. The iconic bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss will accept payments in or a combination of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Uniswap, Polkadot, Aave or Try.Finance according to hard rock news site, Blabber Mouth. Listing broker Evangelina Duke-Petroni from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a Feb 1 interview that any potential crypto payment for the property would have to be “verified through closing costs, including taxes and commissions.” The three-level mansion sprawls across over 11,000 square …

Miami-based fintech startup Milo is introducing what it claims is the world’s first “crypto mortgage.” The digital bank will allow crypto investors to leverage their digital assets to purchase real estate in the U.S. At the moment, only customers wanting to use Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral qualify for Milo’s 30-year mortgage loan. Both American and International customers will be able to use the service to purchase real estate in the U.S. Milo’s website states: “Instead of selling your crypto for a down payment to qualify for a mortgage, a crypto mortgage lets you leverage your crypto to invest in real …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) skyrocketed in popularity over the course of 2021 as the wider public became enthralled with projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, but these one-of-a-kind digital images are only scratching the surface of what NFT technology is capable of. One project focused on expanding the functionality of NFTs beyond the digital art space is Propy, a protocol focused on the integration of blockchain technology with the real estate sector by automating the closing process of home buying to make the entire process faster, simpler and more secure. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows …

Sun Hung Kai, one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong, continues betting on the cryptocurrency industry by investing in Swiss crypto outfit Sygnum. Sygnum officially announced Thursday that it closed a $90 million Series B round led by Sun Hung Kai, a real estate giant and alternative investment firm in Hong Kong. According to Sun Hung Kai’s group executive chairman Lee Seng Huang, the company has a strategic vision to expand its fund management offerings into digital assets. “Amidst growing institutional demand and regulatory oversight of this sector, Sygnum, with its track record as a fully-regulated digital asset …

Millionaire investor and crypto proponent Kevin O'Leary thinks that the NFT sector could be worth more than Bitcoin in the future. Speaking with CNBC’s Capital Connection on Jan. 5, O'Leary — also known as Mr. Wonderful — argued that NFTs provide a greater potential to attract capital than Bitcoin due to their ability to tokenize and authenticate physical assets such as cars, watches and real estate: “You’re going to see a lot of movement in terms of doing authentication and insurance policies and real estate transfer taxes all online over the next few years, making NFTs a much bigger, more …

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has reportedly made a multi-million-dollar real estate purchase at the end of 2021. Armstrong bought a $133 million Los Angeles property from Japanese entrepreneur Hideki Tomita in December, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing anonymous people familiar with the matter. According to the WSJ, Tomita originally purchased the real estate for $85 million in 2018. The new deal allegedly marks the biggest home purchase ever completed in the L.A. area. Prior to being sold to Tomita, the Bel-Air estate was formerly owned by Ellen Bronfman …

Almost half of retail investors in Russia believe that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are a hedging asset associated with stable income, according to a new survey. Financial publication Investing.com has polled 1,000 Russian retail investors to find out the most requested types of alternative investments. According to a survey of 1,000 Russian retail investors by Investing.com, as many as 46% of respondents viewed cryptocurrencies as a potential defensive asset allowing them to hedge against financial risks at times of an economic crisis. Russian retail investors favored crypto more than real estate as just 37% of respondents investing in alternative assets …