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A luxury community in southwest Florida is partnering with a technology firm to accept home purchases in cryptocurrency.
Pearl Homes announced on July 21 that it would be working with RealOpen, a crypto-to-real estate platform, to offer homes in Hunters Point in Cortez, Florida, minutes north of Sarasota.
“It’s like a crypto trader liquidity valve for us,” said Marshall Gobuty, founder and CEO of Pearl Homes. “And at the same time, the crypto trader gets to use his money to buy a physical asset.”
In essence, the process works as if these were all-cash transactions. Buyers give the value of the home in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum to RealOpen, which will then hand cash to Pearl Homes.
Andy Abramson, a spokesman for Pearl, said the transaction would be open only to buyers who aren't taking out a mortgage.
Begun in 2023, Hunters Point homes have a focus on sustainability. Each is solar- and battery-powered, elevated 16 feet above sea level to avoid flooding, and built with steel, timber and concrete to weather hurricanes. The construction process also attempts to reduce waste.
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The waterfront homes are all three stories with in-ground pools, elevators, marina access and other luxury features. Prices for new builds start at $1.4 million, fully furnished. Seven Hunters Point properties were for sale on Homes.com as of July 25.
Gobuty said he believes crypto traders will value the kind of technologically advanced development Hunters Point offers. “I don’t know if there is a crossover, but we’re trying to create one,” he said. “Maybe this is that cutting edge that makes them say, ‘This is not just a house.’”
Crypto real estate transactions have been growing. Luxury brokerage Christie’s International Real Estate opened a dedicated division for crypto buyers in July.
Ioannis Gkatzimas, a faculty member at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, said financial institutions have been moving toward recognizing cryptocurrencies as an emerging asset type that can be used in a wide variety of transactions.
“It’s not crazy to think that people will be accepting crypto more broadly, including for lending purposes,” Gkatzimas said.
Some companies and municipalities have begun work on what’s called tokenization of real estate. Unlike the RealOpen process, tokenization would allow the real asset — i.e. a home or building — to be represented by a digital token that can be traded on blockchain technology. This would allow for the removal of intermediaries such as brokerages and greater anonymity in transactions. Tokens could also be split to allow fractional investment in single properties.
However it gets done, Gobuty said, crypto investors will need to be able to make more regular purchases with their currencies. “It’s got to be a big part of the future with crypto,” he said. “It has to be.”