tZERO to tokenize $18M of stock for the ‘Robinhood of real estate investing’

tZERO, an alternative trading system for security tokens, has announced a partnership with real estate crowdfunding company, NYCE Group, to tokenize $18 million worth of the firm’s shares.

NYCE’s stock will be tZERO’s first new listing since launching its ASPN pairing in August 2020, representing fractionalized ownership in a Colorado ski resort.

Announced June 30, tZERO will support secondary trade for NYCE’s tokenized common shares once the real estate company has completed its upcoming Regulation A+ offering, subject to regulatory approval.

NYCE’s shares will be tokenized using tZERO’s proprietary smart contract technology. Philip Michael, CEO and co-founder of NYCE, stated:

“Through our partnership with the leader in liquidity for digital securities, tZERO, we are excited to provide investors with liquidity optionality.”

The real estate firm was founded by Michael and FC Barcelona soccer player Martin Braithwaite, with media describing the platform as a “Robinhood of real estate investing.”

The NYCE app allows retail investors to own fractionalized shares in properties from its $260 million portfolio, describing its mission to create 100,000 high-net-worth millennial stakeholders of color by 2030.

NYCE finalized its $1 million Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) offering in October 2020, setting a record for the fastest Reg CF offering to raise seven figures. The company formally launched its app in March.

Related: Security tokenization may be the next big use case for blockchain tech

Of the tokens on the exchange, volume for the ASPN token has consistently lagged behind tZERO’s native token TZROP and Overstock’s digital security OSTKO since the resort’s token was launched.

The security token sector has been on a wild ride in recent years, with monthly volume increasing from roughly by more than 110 times from less than $200,000 as of January 2020 to roughly $22 million during August.

However, monthly trade activity has since slumped more than 75% with less than $5 million in May.

According to Security Token Group’s latest report, TZROP was the most-traded security token for the month of May with nearly $2.7 million worth of trade. TZROP’s market cap is currently roughly $140 million, which would rank it as the 229th-largest crypto asset by capitalization, according to CoinGecko.