Today we proudly present Connex Coin — the first real estate crypto token that qualifies as an investment token according to German and EU law. At EXPO REAL 2019, Europe’s largest real estate fair, we presented first details. We now received the final approval by German financial regulatory body BaFin and have started with the sale of Connex Coin, open to friends and family. Here’s the story of Connex Coin – Germany’s first real estate investment token.
The idea of Connex Coin was born in 2018. Then, we discussed digitisation projects in the field of real estate funds with Thomas Meyer, founder and CEO of Wertgrund Immobilien AG, a residential real estate fund manager. Shortly afterwards, we started a similar conversation with Hans Hammer, founder and CEO of Hammer AG, a commercial real estate developer. It became clear within weeks: we should have these conversations together, as a team.
Fast forward: In July 2019, we founded our new company RAAY Real Estate (RAAY RE) as a joint venture of Hammer, Wertgrund and Datarella. The purpose of RAAY RE is to offer blockchain-based products and solutions to the real estate industry, which itself is a late adopter regarding digitisation efforts. We decided to start RAAY RE with the tokenisation of a Hammer-owned property, located in central Munich. With the Connex building, we have a first class property in one of the best real estate locations in Europe, with first class tenants — in short: the best product you can imagine for the start of a product category in your company!
By tokenising this property, we provide the perfect investment opportunity — especially for retail investors — since individuals can become real estate investors starting at 10 EUR. The Connex Coin token sale will take place from March to May 2020. Connex Coin owners will receive an interest of 3% on their investments and can sell Connex Coin back to the issuer. In the first phase, there will be no public trading of Connex Coin, since at the moment there are no EU-compliant cryptocurrency exchanges that offer trading security tokens. As soon as there is approval from financial regulators, Connex Coin will be one of the first security tokens listed on exchanges in Europe.
Connex Coin – Germany’s First Real Estate Investment Token
Connex Coin is the first token issued by RAAY RE, others will follow. We are planning to launch more token sales for self-owned real estate properties in 2020. Additionally, we will offer tokenisation as a service to players on the real estate industry. This offering comprises the complete tokenisation process, including technical, legal and regulatory elements, based on an existing long-term real estate expertise.
In addition to our tokenisation service, at RAAY RE we offer a variety of tools and products that can be used by real estate developers, owners and funds, ranging from KYC onboarding processes, to smart digital (crypto) wallets. Our clients benefit from the in-depth technological expertise of Datarella, known for running large blockchain projects on a global level.
With the launch of Connex Coin we can prove that blockchain technology can be leveraged to make payment and transaction processes within real estate more efficient, thus paving the way to a digitised future for the real estate industry.
The acquisition of this investment involves considerable risks and can lead to the complete loss of the invested assets.