We built a smart contract platform that lets a commercial real estate fund sell fractional ownership to KYC-verified investors and settles trades automatically. It holds $500M in assets under custody.
Industry: FinTech & Financial ServicesService: SaaS & SoftwareUpdated
Overview
The challenge
The client held a $500M portfolio of premium commercial real estate that was hard to sell. Investors needed $5M+ to take part, and every secondary sale meant 30 days of manual title reconciliation and legal work.
Compliance was checked after the fact, so errors often surfaced months after a trade had settled. Ordinary smart contracts could not fix this on their own, because they could not stop a transfer when an investor's status changed.
Manual settlement cycles kept investors from exiting their positions, which pushed down asset values in secondary markets.
Onboarding corporate sub-entities took months of manual document checks across jurisdictions.
Standard smart contracts lacked the legal circuit breakers needed to halt transfers if an investor's status changed.
The solution
We used a restricted token standard, so ownership tokens can only sit in wallets that hold a verified, on-chain KYC credential.
A settlement engine keeps on-chain trades and the legal title registers in step as they happen, removing the T+30 delay.
Every change to the cap table is saved in a cryptographically verifiable ledger, and regulators can get a report in one click.
Before and after
Before
Paper units
Investors needed $5M+ and weeks of manual legal drafting to take part.
After
Fractional tokens
Units start at $10k, managed by automated smart contracts that follow the fund's policies.
Before
Periodic audits
Checks happened after the fact and often found errors months after settlement.
After
Checked on every transfer
The ledger itself blocks a non-compliant transfer before it happens.
Before
T+30 Days
Title transfer, escrow and legal checks on funds were all done by hand.
After
Near-instant
Atomic swaps move the asset and the payment at the same moment, in under a second.
Key features
Microservices watch the blockchain and update the legal title register automatically, within the legal safe-harbour windows.
Business impact
90% less admin
Every governance vote and cap-table split is logged with a cryptographic hash, so ownership cannot be forged or back-dated.
Business impact
100% error-free audits
Private keys are managed in hardware security modules (HSMs) with SOC 2-ready security controls.
Business impact
Keys never exposed
Results
90% Settlement Efficiency
Investors can now trade positions with almost no extra effort, instead of waiting through the old 30-day process.
Before: 30 DaysAfter: Instant
12x Distribution Scale
Lowering the minimum investment through fractional ownership brought in more unique investors for each asset.
Before: RestrictedAfter: Ready to grow
Live Audit Trails
How long it takes to generate a full regulatory audit trail for the whole $500M portfolio.
Before: < 48 HoursAfter: 10 Seconds
Faster delivery
These components saved about 9.5 weeks of setup, so the team could concentrate on transfer rules and keeping the title register in sync.
Linked each investor's verified KYC credential to their wallet, which the token contract checks on every transfer.
Gave the settlement engine a tested way to keep on-chain records and the legal register in step.
Gave the fund one view of token holdings, transfers and compliance alerts for each property.
Paid dividends to token holders in proportion to their holdings.
Trust and control
On-chain policy rules stop tokens from moving into unauthorised wallets or wallets without KYC.
Code enforcedIntegration with hardware security modules means private keys are never exposed in memory.
SOC 2-readyRegulators can replay the ledger to check compliance at any point in its history.
Audit readyCoretus handed over 100% of the smart contract source code and deployment workflows to the client.
100% ownedThe portfolio was mostly illiquid. Investors needed $5M+ to take part, and selling a stake meant 30 days of manual title reconciliation and legal work. Onboarding corporate sub-entities took months of document checks, so the fund wanted smaller units, faster trades and compliance that runs automatically.
Ownership tokens use the ERC-3643 standard, so they can only be held by wallets with a verified on-chain KYC credential. The ledger blocks a non-compliant transfer before it happens, and transfers can be halted if an investor's status changes. Regulators can replay the ledger to check any point in its history.
Settlement moved from 30 days to near-instant, a 90% efficiency gain, and the minimum investment fell from $5M+ to $10k. Investor distribution grew 12x with zero policy deviations. A full regulatory audit trail for the $500M portfolio now takes 10 seconds, where it used to take up to 48 hours.
If high minimums and slow settlement are keeping investors away, we can help you plan a tokenised ownership model with compliance built into every transfer.