2025/11/03 by Ang Liu · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism #Urban Planning and Governance #Global Urban Networks and Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1080/2833115x.2025.2566792
openalex publication_date 2025/11/03 · openalex created_date 2025/11/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
The rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) has introduced new digital infrastructures that seek to reshape the organisation of real estate investment. This evolution follows the broader financialisation of property markets, in which securitisation bridged real estate and global finance by converting physical assets into circulating financial claims. While real estate investment trusts (REITs) have long enabled fractional ownership of real estate assets via public markets, tokenisation promises further disruption by offering alternative trading venues, borderless participation and programmable ownership structures. The case of Aspen Coin – a blockchain initiative at the St. Regis Aspen Resort – serves as an empirical lens to critically assess the promises and limitations of tokenised real estate finance. It contrasts the property’s initially proposed REIT structure with its ultimate shift toward tokenisation. Despite claims of decentralisation and disintermediation, findings reveal institutional gatekeeping, emerging regulatory frameworks and liquidity constraints that replicate existing financial hierarchies. Tokenisation reduces some frictions but does not democratise ownership or governance in practice. Situated within debates on financial geography and spatial theories of financialisation, this paper argues that tokenisation constitutes a partial and uneven transformation of real estate markets. Rather than dismantling traditional structures, it extends them into new digital infrastructures. This study contributes to debates on DeFi’s spatial and institutional limits, suggesting that real estate tokenisation is less a radical departure than a digital intensification of financialised urban space.