Avalanche Chosen for Historic Property Record Migration
In a U.S. first, Bergen County, New Jersey, is partnering with Balcony, a real estate tokenization firm, to move its entire property deed system—worth an estimated $240 billion—onto the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain. This five-year agreement will see 370,000 real estate deeds from 70 municipalities digitized into an immutable, searchable ledger, directly accessible by nearly one million residents.
John Hogan, Bergen’s County Clerk, called the initiative a leap forward in public recordkeeping:
New Jersey Steps Into the RWA Revolution
The move places Bergen County at the forefront of the growing RWA tokenization trend, a market Boston Consulting Group and Ripple project could hit $18.9 trillion by 2033. Real estate is expected to be a dominant category, and Bergen is setting a precedent for how local governments can modernize operations using blockchain.
Balcony’s blockchain infrastructure has already shown impressive results in other NJ counties:
- In Orange, it helped uncover $1 million in lost municipal revenue
- In Camden, it cut deed processing time by up to 90%
Real-World Blockchain Use Gains Momentum
This isn’t Avalanche’s first foray into RWA digitization. In 2024:
- California’s DMV started moving 42 million vehicle titles to Avalanche
- In Dubai, the Land Department deployed a real estate tokenization platform on the XRP Ledger, targeting $16 billion in transactions
As governments and institutions move beyond crypto speculation and into utility-driven adoption, blockchains like Avalanche are proving they can handle critical infrastructure securely and efficiently.
Why This Matters for Bergen (and Beyond)
For residents and officials in Bergen County, the benefits are real:
- Tamper-proof, fraud-resistant records
- Faster title transfers and updates
- More accessible property info for citizens
- Potentially higher municipal revenues
And for the broader blockchain ecosystem, it cements Avalanche as a serious player in real-world asset digitization—offering credible, real-world utility beyond DeFi and NFTs.
As counties across the U.S. watch Bergen’s rollout, the success of this initiative could inspire a wave of public blockchain integrations—from title deeds to energy systems and beyond.
