The Real Estate Revolution Is Onchain — And Most Crypto Leaders Are Missing It
While institutions and governments are moving fast to tokenize the world’s biggest asset class, some of the loudest voices in crypto still don’t get it.
At Paris Blockchain Week, Securitize COO Michael Sonnenshein said real estate was a “sub-optimal” asset class for tokenization. His argument? The onchain economy needs more liquid assets — not slow-moving property portfolios.
But here’s the thing: that mindset misses the whole point.
The $654 Trillion Prize
Let’s start with the numbers. According to Statista, the global real estate market is expected to hit $654 trillion in 2025. That’s more than stocks, bonds, crypto, and gold — combined.
If you wanted a piece of a luxury condo in Manhattan or a beachfront hotel in Phuket, your options were limited. You needed deep pockets, accredited investor status, and a high tolerance for multi-year lockups. At best, maybe you could squeeze into a REIT, but good luck finding one with low fees and any real transparency.
Tokenization turns that model upside down.
Now, with as little as $100, anyone can own fractional pieces of high-value real estate. Think of it like slicing a skyscraper into half a million tokens — and letting investors build their own custom portfolios one token at a time.
Real Estate Isn’t Broken — It’s Outdated
Critics like Sonnenshein argue that real estate already has “good systems.” But if you’ve ever tried to buy property — especially cross-border — you know those “systems” involve mountains of paperwork, slow banks, hefty fees, and settlement delays that can drag on for months.
This isn’t a bug. It’s a feature of an outdated system that hasn’t changed in decades.
Tokenization fixes this with code.
Smart contracts automate compliance, identity checks, income distribution, and title transfers. Everything’s recorded immutably onchain. You don’t need a notary stamp or a folder full of signed PDFs. Just connect your wallet, click a few buttons, and you’re a partial landlord.
As one founder puts it, “These aren’t minor flaws. They’re systemic failures — and tokenization solves them.”
It’s Not About Liquidity — It’s About Access
Let’s unpack this “liquidity” obsession.
Sure, being able to trade an asset 24/7 is nice. But that’s not what most people need. What retail investors care about — the teachers, freelancers, first-time savers — is access. The ability to get exposure to wealth-building assets that have historically been reserved for the top 1%.
Tokenized real estate allows for exactly that.
Even if a tokenized asset doesn’t trade like a meme coin on a DEX, it still represents fractional ownership in something tangible — and productive. You earn income. You benefit from appreciation. And you don’t need to beg a broker for permission to participate.
This is what crypto was supposed to be about: opening up systems that were closed for too long.
Tokenization Isn’t Just New Tech — It’s a New Way to Own
Fractionalization is more than just splitting up ownership. It changes how people interact with the entire asset class.
Instead of buying into a black-box REIT with no transparency and high fees, investors can now choose the exact properties they want exposure to. They can diversify across cities and countries. And they can manage everything from a digital wallet.
Want 0.1% of a coworking space in Berlin and 0.3% of a student housing project in Pune? Go for it.
This was once only possible for hedge funds and sovereign wealth managers. Now it’s available to everyday investors — and that’s the real innovation.
The Infrastructure Is Catching Up Fast
Here’s another thing critics miss: the infrastructure is already being built — fast.
Governments are rolling out real estate tokenization pilots. Developers are creating new tools to help asset owners tokenize properties in a few clicks. Secondary markets tailored for real-world assets are emerging. Compliance tech is maturing. Wallets are improving. And users are showing up.
Sure, there’s still work to be done. Regulation needs to evolve. User experience could be better. But the direction of travel is clear — and it’s not slowing down.
Why This Matters
Crypto doesn’t need another yield farm. It needs more ways to solve real-world problems — and tokenized real estate does exactly that.
It democratizes access to the world’s biggest wealth-building vehicle. It makes investing in prime real estate possible for people who’ve been shut out for decades. And it creates a new onchain economy grounded in tangible, productive assets.
That’s a bigger deal than many crypto leaders realize.
Sonnenshein and others aren’t necessarily wrong to want more liquid assets. But they’re missing the forest for the trees. The real estate revolution isn’t about flipping tokens. It’s about making wealth creation fairer, faster, and more inclusive.
Crypto’s next frontier isn’t just in cyberspace. It might be that three-bedroom duplex in Dubai — owned by 10,000 people around the world, earning yield while they sleep.
And if crypto misses that, it’ll be the biggest opportunity we’ve ever ignored.
TokenFi RWA which went live on May 23 is making tokenization as easy as setting up an e-commerce store. No code. No guesswork. Just a simple interface for turning your asset into a compliant, tradable token.
