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El Segundo-based Aperture Real Estate Ventures has launched a cryptocurrency initial coin offering (ICO) with the goal of raising $50 million for investment in its home flipping business.
The currency, called Property Coin, which launched on Tuesday, will be invested in by “skilled professionals” with the help of a suite of analytical tools developed by the company, the company said. The idea is that investors can leave the already risky minutiae of property flipping and investing to Aperture and focus instead on the value of the coin.
Co-CEO Andrew Jewett has sought to downplay the potential risks, making the remarks in an interview with The Real Deal when the company announced its intentions to hold an ICO in February.
Jewett said PropertyCoin is not like wildly speculative cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin because investors can see something that backs its value: real estate assets. Given that fact, he said, the currency is not subject to “wild fluctuations in belief in the value of those assets.”
PropertyCoin launched at $50 a coin in the United States with a minimum investment of $1,000 and $100 for international investors. The coin is based on Ethereum, a blockchain development platform that allows third-party developers like Aperture to build new applications that leverage the public ledger.
Hundreds of applications have been built on the system, including a “prediction market” application for trading derivatives, and a digital cat breeding and trading app that became so popular in December that it clogged transactions on the network.