Real estate mogul Grant Cardone is preparing to tokenize his company’s $5 billion real estate portfolio, the latest real estate heavyweight to explore blockchain-based ownership.
In a Thursday X post, the investor said Cardone Capital plans to tokenize its holdings to provide investors with “collateral and liquidity in secondary markets.” He added that the company aims to become a market leader in asset tokenization at scale.
Cardone Capital manages multifamily and commercial properties across the U.S. In January, CoinDesk reported that Cardone planned to use real estate cash flow to purchase bitcoin. as part of a long-term crypto strategy. The company bought 1,000 BTC in June and has said it intends to add more to its balance sheet.
Tokenization is attracting more and more asset managers to convert traditional assets such as bonds, funds, private credit and real estate into tokens on blockchain rails. In the case of real estate, supporters say tokenization can streamline property record-keeping, trading and settlement. However, uneven regulation remains a bottleneck and low secondary trading can limit liquidity, an EY report noted.
Other real estate leaders are exploring similar paths. The Trump Organization, the real estate conglomerate of Donald Trump and his family, is tokenizing loan proceeds tied to a new tourism project in the Maldives. Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Capital, which manages more than $125 billion, recently said his company is ready to tokenize assets but faces U.S. regulatory barriers.
The tokenized real estate market is still small, but is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade. Deloitte predicted that $4 trillion in real estate could be tokenized by 2035, with annual growth of 27%.
Read more: Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht willing to tokenize assets, but says US regulation blocks him
