Bergen County, New Jersey, is adopting the Avalanche network to place its entire property record system on blockchain, claiming this to be the largest property deed tokenization project in the United States. Through a five-year agreement with blockchain land record company Balcony, this affluent county across the Hudson River from New York City will transfer 370, 000 property deeds—representing approximately $240 billion in real estate—onto an immutable, searchable blockchain ledger, according to a press release. Powered by Avalanche, the system will serve nearly one million residents across 70 municipalities. “This initiative is about improving the lives of our residents, ” stated John Hogan, Bergen’s County Clerk. “By digitizing property records, we are making the process simpler, faster, and more secure for homeowners, businesses, and future generations. ” This effort fits within a wider movement to use blockchain technology for transferring and recording ownership of assets such as bonds, funds, and real estate, a process known as tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). A recent report by Boston Consulting Group and Ripple projects the tokenized asset market could hit $18. 9 trillion by 2033, with real estate comprising a major portion.

Most recently, the Dubai Land Department launched a real estate tokenization platform built on the XRP Ledger network as part of its plan to bring 7% of the city’s real estate transactions—valued at roughly $16 billion—onto blockchain. Balcony, which has implemented similar blockchain-based platforms in multiple New Jersey counties, claims its system reduces deed processing time by 90%, while mitigating risks such as fraud and record inconsistencies. It can also increase municipal revenues: the platform uncovered nearly $1 million in lost revenue for Orange, NJ, caused by incomplete or outdated property records, the company reported. “Blockchain is continuing to solve complex, real-world problems, ” said Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Chief Strategy Officer of Ava Labs, an ecosystem development organization. “[Avalanche’s] infrastructure is designed to manage large volumes of data quickly and securely, which is precisely what is required to modernize property record management and transform public institutions’ operations. ” Last year, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) digitized 42 million car titles on Avalanche to streamline the state’s title transfer process, partnering with software development firm Oxhead Alpha.