Jamestown, a major real estate management firm, just announced that they will now be accepting crypto for all rent payments.
The firm plans to utilize the services of Bitpay to process crypto payments. This service will allow renters to pay in digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and much more.
What Does This Mean For The Real Estate Industry?
Michael Phillips, the president of Jamestown, stated that blockchain technology and crypto will be able to transform the real estate industry completely.
The company wants to be at the forefront of this industry change by integrating its real estate with digital assets as much as possible.
These integrations allow crypto users to lean on crypto for small daily transactions. Essentially, crypto HODLers can live off their crypto assets, transforming their way of life.
This recent announcement marks a significant milestone that the emerging industry has achieved. This is especially true, given that Jamestown is a firm that manages 26 million square feet of real estate.
Many predict that this will allow a large amount of real estate capital to flow into the crypto markets. This change could accelerate more mainstream adoption.
With that being said, Jamestown is not holding any crypto just yet.
Bitpay works because it converts all crypto payments into fiat. This means that Jamestown does not actually directly interact with digital assets itself.
This process simplifies things for businesses who may be looking to get involved with crypto but do not necessarily want to deal with all the technical hassle that comes with it.
With payment processing services like Bitpay acting as the middleman, other major real estate management firms may be enticed to follow Jamestown’s steps and start accepting crypto for rent payments in the future.
Cryptocurrency & Real Estate
Jamestown also seems to be going all-in when it comes to crypto, as it is also doing much more than just accepting crypto for rent.
Additionally, the firm is working on new deposit programs. Employees that express interest in crypto compensation can lean on these programs.
So far, the plan for Jamestown is to allow this option within the United States to test the markets and understand the level of demand.
Eventually, the plan is to start expanding this capability to its real estate properties in other regions such as Europe.
Although this recent development is excellent news for the crypto community looking to combine crypto and real estate, there was also some criticism from others.
Some of the concerns included the fact that many digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum still had volatile prices.
Therefore, the concern is that this volatility could harm the tenant’s ability to pay the rent, making some firms hesitant about accepting crypto as payment.
In other related news, concerned citizens speak up about crypto as collateral for mortgage loans.
Despite the concerns, it seems that disruption is still coming to the industry and that this is just one of the growing pains that all markets have to go through until it reaches maturity.
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