Proptee pauses UK regulation plans over crypto uncertainty
European property investment platform Proptee has put plans to get regulated in the UK on hold.
The platform, which lets investors use an app to buy shares in properties in exchange for receiving a portion of the monthly rent, will take deposits in euros and stablecoin cryptocurrencies USD Coin and the Proptee Euro digital currency.
Benedek Toth, chief executive of Proptee, said the platform decided last summer to not go for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation as there isn’t a clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies in the UK.
“We’re waiting for the UK regulator to come up with a clean legal framework regarding cryptocurrencies and then we’ll submit our application,” he said.
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“There are high capital requirements and the paperwork can take too long when applying for FCA authorisation, making it harder for us to raise money.”
The platform is authorised in Lithuania as a virtual currency exchange, that allows it to operate across the European Union, which it wouldn’t have been able to do in the UK.
Toth said the platform will start by offering single residential property and commercial projects but said there is scope for digital investments in the metaverse.
Read more: Proptee secures €60,000 to develop and launch its property investment app
“There are popular games that have limited lands you can buy, going for an insane amount of money,” he said.
“We think possibly our investors want to see something like this.
“There are games such as Decentraland where somebody owns the land you are walking on.
“We already have plans, we have some land lined up but don’t want to provide a bad investment.
“It is really hard to do due diligence, fundamentally the land value depends on the quality of the game, if people play than it goes up a lot, if not then it goes to zero. We need to make sure they are good games and we can back it up with good data.”
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