Aperture, a Los Angeles based real estate tech startup founded in 2016, is preparing for the sale of Property Coin, an asset-backed cryptocurrency token that goes public today. Property Coin is based on the Ethereum blockchain, which is a popular cryptocurrency standard that’s used as the foundation for so many tokens. Property Coin will be using a combination of algorithms and staff opinions to choose which properties and loans that proceeds from the token will be used for. This will seamlessly fit into Aperture’s current business model of flipping houses as an iBuyer and underwriting loans to smaller real estate investors.
Create a model that works in the ICO Space
Co-CEOs Andrew Jewett and Matt Miles are former investment bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where they focused on the mortgage and real estate space. They launched Aperture in 2016, and this past summer began researching Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and what they could do for their company. Miles stated, “Our experience as investment bankers financing mortgages and real estate was a well-defined path of how to do that and how to do that right way, in a way acceptable to institutional investors and lenders. Then we learned about the ICO market and see no one’s doing those things to ICOs. We’re adapting what we already know about financing assets to create a model to do that in the ICO space.” 
How Does Property Coin Compare?
The ICO at Property Coin will require each investor to have a minimum of $1,000 for U.S. Investors- making it higher than other ICO’s, but still lower than most real estate investments. Property Coin aims to sell at least $50 million worth of tokens through its ICO. Aperture will re-invest 50 percent of its profits from the ICO in other real estate investments, with hopes to create appreciation for its cryptocurrency investors. Jewett and Miles hope that Property Coin will get the attention of two kinds of investors: the traditional cryptocurrency investors who want to diversify their holdings and traditional real estate/ structured finance investors interested in moving into cryptocurrencies. They do not have the longevity, which makes investors skeptical.
Pros
- Both type of investors can use this- real estate investors and cryptocurrencies investors
- Company employees privately have invested and together already bought a property in Dallas
- Based on Ethereum blockchain- cryptocurrency standard that’s used as the foundation for many new tokens
- Aperture will reinvest 50% of its profits from the ICO in other real estate investments
Cons
- Minimum initial investment is higher than other ICO’s (minimum token contribution of $1,000 for U.S. investors )
- Tether is a very similar company, also backed by real-world assets
- Company is less than two years old. They do not have the longevity, which makes investors skeptical
- Aperture staff chooses which properties and loans that the proceeds from the token will be used for
Today, Property Coin will go public and Aperture will attempt to be the first company with a cryptocurrency backed by real estate assets. “We really see the opportunity for Property Coin to come in and be truly the first crypto-denominated securitization or structured finance fund back by real world assets, real estate assets.”
Will you be investing in Property Coin?
