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Use of bitcoin, other digital money to buy property grinds to halt as cryptocurrency market crashes
- The use of digital coins to pay for real estate globally has all but evaporated after strong growth in recent years, say property analysts
- Its use had been largely limited to wealthy investors buying luxury property in places like the US and Dubai
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Property purchases paid for with cryptocurrency have nearly ground to a halt after their rapid expansion in recent years, in the wake of a plunge in the value of digital money.
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Over the last five years, global cryptocurrency payments for residential and commercial real estate had gone from almost nothing to about US$100 million in total, according to an estimate by Kashif Ansari, co-founder and group CEO of Juwai IQI, a property technology company.
But the cryptocurrency market, like the stock market, has taken a dive this year. For example, bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, sank 58 per cent in the last six months to US$21,123 on Monday.
“We have seen a complete drop in the number of people using cryptocurrency to purchase real estate,” said US property broker Ryan Serhant, founder of the agency Serhant which did about a dozen such deals last year. “No one is selling their cryptocurrency right now and taking losses so that they can buy real estate.”
Bitcoin was the most commonly used cryptocurrency for buying bricks and mortar last year. Serhant saw its use peak in the autumn when it traded between US$50,000 and US$70,000.
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