Indiegogo announced today that they are promoting a bid to put shares of the St. Regis Aspen hotel on the blockchain. The luxury hotel is hoping to raise 12 million dollars through the sale of tokens backed by shares in the hotel.
Asset-Backed Tokens
2017 may have been the year of ICOs, with many projects raising tens of millions of dollars in Bitcoin and Ethereum. But with the crash and decline of the altcoin market this year, some are trying to distance themselves from what they see as rampant speculation in the crypto space. A project may or may not succeed in the long run, however good the team’s vision, and if they fail the value of the project’s token can quickly go to zero.
By backing up their ‘Aspen Coins’ with shares in a real, physical asset, the St. Regis Aspen luxury hotel is hoping to instill confidence in investors that money put into their project is (relatively) safe. The luxury hotel is hoping to raise as much as 12 million US dollars from this ICO, money that will be spent renovating and extending the hotel.
Although issued as a cryptocurrency, the Aspen Coin comes with some severe caveats. Only Accredited Investors may invest in the token.
Although the token itself is a simple ERC20-token and can be kept in any Ethereum compatible wallet, it is meant to be traded only on Templum Markets, a new exchange for only accredited U.S. investors. To have access to the exchange, you must prove a net worth exceeding $1 million, or an annual income exceeding $200,000/year for the last three years.
Indiegogo Moving in on Crypto
Templum Markets will not be advertising the sale directly, however. The crowdfunding company Indiegogo was contracted to promote the sale. This is Indiegogo’s second such venture, following the successful ICO of FCFL in March of this year, which raised over $5 million. A crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo launched in 2007.
A new player in ICOs, the company has raised over $1 billion for non-crypto projects so far and is beginning to open up to crypto projects, affording ICOs on the platform an excellent opportunity to make an impression on people who are new to crypto. Though the market is still bleak at the moment, week by week, month by month, more businesses are opening themselves up to crypto, with “no-coiners” seeing it mentioned as a growing space in the tech industry.
The sale of Aspen Coins will begin August 24 on the Templum Markets exchange.
