The crypto payments revolution looks to be gradually bubbling up, with more and more industries dipping their toes into not only appealing to the hundreds of millions of crypto owners around the world, but also making use of the very useful tech. One industry that has been crying out for a solution that brings all of the benefits of crypto is that of real estate, and now, it looks as though sellers across Europe are catching on.
International accessibility and minimal fees
European real estate opened 2025 with around three to five percent of all property listings accepting crypto as a form of payment, which equates to up to 2,000 properties. The common thread between most of these listings, aside from taking crypto, was the prices. The vast majority were luxury real estate sales in excess of €1 million on the market. Germany, Malta, and Portugal all saw several crypto listings go up, thanks to the favourable crypto environment in place in those countries.
However, it was Spain that led the charge on the continent. Spanish real estate sales saw the largest number of crypto transactions, with much of the demand coming from foreign investors. This won’t come as a surprise as, in the first half of 2024 alone, some 69,000 properties (or 20 per cent of the total sales) were to outside buyers. Spain’s experience serves as a prime example of how the industry is adopting crypto as a payment method.
Crypto has international accessibility and low fees, especially when compared to conversion rates, which is why it has been thought to greatly benefit the real estate and luxury housing market. It could also seek to bolster a range of other industries. Online businesses, like those in eCommerce, could cater to customers overseas by utilising a crypto payment gateway that has minimal fees and offers stablecoin conversions. Such gateways open any kind of business to a much wider customer base and make payments from them far more streamlined.
Crypto use and acceptance set to keep on growing
Moving far beyond its fame as an investment vehicle, crypto continues to see adoption rates rise and companies buy in. Just recently, the property-focused fintech firm Janover put up over $10 million to acquire over 80,000 SOL to enhance its digital asset treasury strategy. More generally, Europe is becoming a hotbed for cryptocurrency owners. By the end of this year, over 218 million users are projected to increase the penetration rate of the tech to over 26 per cent.
While Spain is ahead when it comes to property sales in crypto, Germany is the continental leader in crypto adoption. Here, there’s a strong focus on protecting investors and enforcing regulatory compliance, which has given the sector the much-craved stability that it’s always needed. It’s not just Germany, though. Malta famously tried to become ‘Blockchain Island’ through a friendly legal framework, and the European Union has upheld its role as an avid regulator in this new age of crypto, helping to develop an assured space for businesses, users, and investors alike.
It seems inevitable that the good-sized chunk of the real estate market that caters to crypto payments will grow in the years to come, with other major markets primed to follow in the footsteps of countries like Spain.