In recent times, in the real estate segment, the tokenization of real estate gave much to talk about. This is a new trend that, in simple terms, consists of transforming a real estate asset into a token that is stored on the blockchain. Then, once it’s turned into a digital asset, it’s put up for sale. Also, in the real estate industry, there are already companies that create tokens that represent properties under construction, and put them up for sale to generate liquidity in that real estate project; and thus begin to raise capital to continue the work. In this framework, according to an international survey carried out by Security Token Market, the capitalization of the tokenized real estate market amounted to about $30,032 million in the United States, which means a great opportunity for Argentina -and also for Latin America. “In our country, as there is a great adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, real estate tokenization already exists: Argentines choose to tokenize a property, pay in installments; or buy square meters in projects, by way of crowdfunding, to generate interest; and they can even access ‘well’ apartments”,  explains Álvaro Castro Burgueño, President of Che Token, a real estate company specialized in tokenizing real estate assets. However, there are still doubts regarding security, the opportunities presented by this market and the keys to avoiding scams.

Is it safe to invest cryptocurrencies in properties?

Since April 2021, the Argentine Real Estate Chamber (CIA ) has trained developers, builders and real estate companies in the country so that they can accept payments in cryptocurrencies and be able to triangulate digital money without any problem or friction, thus guaranteeing the security of transactions. Instead of transferring capital in cash, the investor purchases a stablecoin cryptocurrency pegged one-to-one to the US dollar such as USDT and DAI; and makes the money transfer. As these are cryptocurrencies that always maintain the value of USD 1, there is no fluctuation and the amount is exactly the same as if you were making the payment in cash or the transfer. However, as this is a relatively new market, there are still people who are wary of it. For this reason, real estate agencies also accept mixed payments, that is, a part in cash and the remaining percentage in stable cryptocurrencies to ensure that the transaction was successful.

How to avoid scams

In these types of operations, beware of computer viruses that alter cryptocurrency wallet addresses to steal funds. How does this work? A person copies the real estate cryptocurrency wallet address to their clipboard. When you paste that address into your account to make the transfer, the virus alters that code and pastes its own. The person unknowingly sends the money to a false address. The only way to protect yourself from this is with a good antivirus and you always have to check that the address is correct. That is, compare both several times until you are totally sure.