REITs and Tokenization

How real estate will merge into modernized capital markets

I’ve said this before, and I am saying it again: The capital markets are a miracle.

Think about it. What kicked off with stockbrokers signing the Buttonwood Agreement under a literal tree, with a quill, is now the system of connective code that executes trades in microseconds, at an unfathomable order of magnitude. Nasdaq recently moved nearly $100 billion in under a second. That’s not just progress, it is a teleportation machine for capital.

One of the things I’ve always loved about working with ETFs is the ability to bring different asset classes onto equity markets where the trading is most liquid and efficient. So, instead of stock markets only trading stocks, they are also trading physical gold through the GLD ETF, and they are trading bonds, and CLOs, and foreign markets, and even magnificent office building at One Vanderbilt through the SLG REIT, and so on.

As for that last point, real estate has been participating on stock exchanges through the REIT structure. The REIT structure lets you invest in real estate like you're buying stocks, with steady income - and no tenants to deal with. No late night calls to fix the plumbing, just the rents.