Digital Assets
Real Estate firm Harbor Custom Development to Add Support for Digital Asset Payments
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Cryptocurrency adoption continues to progress, with the latest example of this being a Washington-based real estate company called Harbor Custom Development. The firm will allegedly start accepting cryptocurrency payments for apartments, residential homes, condominiums, and other types of property.
Harbor Custom Development to accept payments in digital currencies
Based on a recent report, the company will add support for crypto payments starting January 24th, 2022, and it plans to embrace several different assets. Apart from the obvious one — Bitcoin — the company also plans to include Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu, which is DOGE’s biggest rival among memecoins.
The company’s COO, Jeff Habersetzer, spoke of the new development, noting that acceptance of digital currencies in the firm’s real estate offerings is a logical step. It demonstrates the company’s flexible business model which, for the time being, makes the firm stand out from its peers.
While the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries have had numerous theoretical uses in real estate for years now, there is still a great amount of hesitance to accept them due to the lack of regulatory clarity. Harbor Custom Development’s decision to accept crypto payments in spite of this could potentially give it an edge in the sector and make it more progressive.
The firm is selling properties in a number of states and locations, including Washington; Punta Gorda, Florida; Austin, Texas; and Sacramento, California. However, it is worth noting that not everyone will be able to buy property with crypto. The option will only be available for residents of the mentioned states.
The company’s CEO and President, Sterling Griffin, also commented on the move, noting that enabling digital asset payments will allow the firm to enter a growing industry whose purchasing power exceeds $1 trillion dollars. In addition to that, it will also place Harbor in a first-mover position, which has always been advantageous, especially in the cryptocurrency sector.
Crypto adoption in real estate
Of course, while Harbor is among the first firms to support crypto payments in the real estate sector, it is not the first one. In September last year, a property management company from New York, Magnum Real Estate Group, started accepting Bitcoin payments for the sale of a Manhattan-based shopping center.
Before that, a building offering deluxe properties in Miami Beach, Arte Surfside, also sold an oceanfront condominium in exchange for cryptocurrency. It was not disclosed which cryptocurrency was used in the deal, but it is known that the purchase was worth $22.5 million, making this the most expensive residential deal paid in digital assets to date.
Even before that, there was another company called Caruso — one of the leading estate firms in the US — which announced that its tenants are allowed to pay rent with Bitcoin. This was in April last year. Caruso also invested a certain amount in Bitcoin as part of its treasury management strategy, although it never disclosed how much was invested.
In other words, cryptocurrency is slowly but surely entering the real estate sector, one company at a time.
