Polygon CEO: Tokenization Transforms Real Estate
04 Mar, 2025 ● Crypto people
Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has the potential to transform the real estate investment sector, which is traditionally illiquid, reliant on intermediaries, and burdened with high transaction costs, according to Polygon CEO Mark Boiron.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Boiron explained that tokenizing properties could help eliminate unnecessary intermediaries, significantly reducing transaction costs.
He also highlighted how fractional ownership and the ability to trade tokenized real estate on secondary markets could enhance liquidity and accelerate capital movement.
"The thing you really want is the ability to eliminate the illiquidity discount on real estate. All real estate is illiquid and therefore it's discounted to some degree. It can be more valuable if it's liquid," Boiron told Cointelegraph.
A notable example of this approach is Lumia Towers, a $220 million commercial real estate project in Istanbul, Turkey, featuring two skyscrapers with 300 mixed-use commercial and residential units.
The project leveraged Polygon's technology for tokenization.
Boiron emphasized that the future of real estate lies onchain, though widespread adoption depends on regulators becoming comfortable with blockchain technology and public permissionless systems.
In the United States, Quarter provides tokenized alternatives to traditional debt-based home mortgages, aiming to increase homeownership and make housing more affordable for aspiring buyers.
Instead of the standard debt-based financing, Quarter assigns fractionalized equity rights to both property investors and prospective homeowners, which can then be sold.
Similarly, in February 2025, real estate platform Blocksquare launched a real estate tokenization framework for the European Union, enabling equity rights to be assigned and transferred onchain.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also emerged as a hotspot for real estate asset tokenization, as it remains one of the fastest-growing real estate markets globally.
According to Tokinvest founder and CEO Scott Thiel, property developers in the UAE are increasingly looking to tokenize projects as an alternative to traditional financing structures.
Additionally, in February 2025, stablecoin issuer Tether partnered with real estate platform Reelly Tech to expand the use of USDt in real estate transactions within the UAE.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/tokenization-transform-real-estate-polygon-ceo
