Property group Bauwens backs crypto firm Fundaments' launch in Germany

German financial watchdog gives Fundament the okay to open its cryptocurrency services to the country

The major German property developer, Bauwens, is taking a long-term bet on the future of real estate investment being tokenized. Announced this morning, the company has acquired 15% of the shares in Fundament, a regulated crypto property platform built on Ethereum (ETH). 

Launching just over a year and a half ago, the Berlin-based Fundament Group offers blockchain-based securities that are linked to German properties. That allows investors to gain indirect exposure to the country’s real estate market. In July, it received approval from BaFin, the country’s financial regulator, for its first tokenized real estate bond with an issue volume of $274 million.

The bond covered five separate construction projects of mixed commercial and residential properties, that includes a daycare center in Hamburg and a student accommodation block in Jena. Although open to investment from all around the world, citizens of the US, Canada and Australia are currently prohibited by their own regulators from purchasing the securities.

“The Fundament Real Estate Token is an extremely interesting option for selling our real estate and we are proud to support them with our real estate and digitization expertise. By partnering with Fundament Group, Bauwens is positioning itself sustainably in the emerging real estate tokenization market.”

–Alexander Jacobi, Managing Director of Bauwens

Why this is the real deal

Bauwens is one of Germany’s oldest and largest real estate developers. Its managed development portfolio, comprised of both residential and commercial properties, is worth more than $7.3 billion. As well as the strategic investment, Fundament will have access to a development pipeline in the country’s key metropolitan areas, including Berlin.

Fundament’s CEO Thomas Ermel, who spent a decade working in property investment, told Crypto Briefing that blockchain can entirely overhaul a sector that has long “had problems with structuring trades”.  

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