Fractional ownership has gained significant traction in recent years to become a convenient tool for democratizing access to high value assets. Whether it is real estate, cultural and historical artwork or racehorses; the idea is simple, instead of investors purchasing a whole commercial building or very expensive piece of art, why not own a fraction of it?
For investors, this approach opens the door to markets that were once a preserve for the wealthy individuals and entities with serious financial muscle. On the other hand, fractional ownership also provides an opportunity for asset holders to unlock liquidity without necessarily selling all of their equity.
But with the model becoming more popular across most of the consumer markets globally, an important question arises; how can buyers be sure the assets even exist—or that their shares mean anything at all? There have been several instances where buyers encountered the famous “I’ve got a bridge to sell you,” situation, ending up with nothing to their name.
That said, let’s first dive into some of the intriguing figures that indicate the growth of the fractional ownership market before diving into the potential pitfall and why blockchain technology is well suited to solve the trust issue when it comes to this niche ecosystem.
A Market Whose Time Has Come
The concept of fractional ownership is not new; in fact, it has been around since the early 80s when Richard Santulli of NetJets rolled it out, enabling businesses at the time to co-own shares in a jet. Later on in the 90s, the U.S. fractional property market debuted with the Rocky Mountains ski resorts listing as the high value properties in this case.
Fast forward to 2025, the fractional ownership market has witnessed tremendous growth especially in the real estate sector, with estimates from Allied Market Research predicting it could hit a valuation of $1.7 trillion by 2026. It is also worth mentioning that real estate crowdfunding platforms have grown to over 300 as per Crowdspace, up from just 2 back in 2011.
Even more important is the fact that the average investment size for fractional ownership assets has been on a downtrend over the past decade, making it possible for small time investors to gain exposure in asset classes that were otherwise unreachable. Now to the caveat “buying a non-existent, exaggerated or fraudulent bridge.”
Classic “Selling the Bridge” Scam
Any thriving market is bound to attract scammers or malicious players looking to take advantage of unsuspecting investors, that is also the case for the fractional ownership market. For example, RealtyShares, a U.S. based crowdfunding platform which offered access to fractional ownership of real estate raised over $60 million from VCs as well as thousands of investors only to go down in 2018, leaving most of the deals in limbo.
It is also worth highlighting that there have been several instances of scammers attempting to sell fractional shares of fine art without proper authentication or proof of custody. This is an issue that the British firm Fine Art Society has previously warned investors against. Another notable instance in the infamous racehorse ownership fraud which saw victims in the U.K and Australia purchase horses that were either over-syndicated, misrepresented in terms of pedigree and performance or not properly registered with racing authorities.
This is where blockchain technology could come in handy by introducing the most important aspect for fractional ownership to thrive – trustless transparency.
Blockchain Technology: A Foundation of Trust
While there are already established traditional frameworks for fractional ownership to operate, including escrows, legal structures and custodial agreements, blockchain levels up the game through publicly verifiable infrastructures. Simply put, when an asset is tokenized through blockchain for it to be fractionally owned;
- Provenance is recorded immutably such that everyone can verify the asset’s authenticity and ownership history.
- Fractional shares can be issued as tokens, making it easy to trade, track, and audit.
- Smart contracts enforce rules which means that dividends, resale limitations, or voting rights can be embedded directly into the code.
Raphael Coin: Owning Cultural Heritage through Blockchain
The Raphael Coin is one of the intriguing blockchain-powered projects that is making it possible for both big and small time investors to participate in cultural heritage through blockchain technology. This coin democratizes the ownership of the recently rediscovered “Recto: Study for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge” piece by Renaissance master Raffaello.
Raphael played a central role in the decoration of the Vatican, working from 1508 until his death. The Sala di Costantino, the large reception hall for papal ceremonies, was the highlight of his work there. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, a dramatic fresco in the room, depicts Constantine’s victory over Maxentius, and the tokenized piece of Raphael Coin was his study to create the masterpiece.
Raphael Coin is preserving the piece through tokenizing it, giving owners a stake in its preservation. The project is using its platform to educate the public about classical masterpieces. It named Aliyyah Koloc, a professional race car driver and philanthropist, as the official ambassador of the project to further inform the public of the efforts to tokenize invaluable cultural heritage and masterpieces.
In a setting where fractional ownership didn’t exist, this piece would have ended up with a single high networth investor. But with blockchain in the picture, it is not just a matter of fractional ownership but introducing a trustless ownership structure that enables a wider community to participate culturally and historically by owning a part of this masterpiece. At the core, Raphael Coin is powered by Gleec, a uniquely integrated blockchain ecosystem.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the introduction, fractional ownership is not a new concept but more importantly it has become a means of owning high value assets. This trend is bound to grow bigger as the world’s global markets become more interconnected. However, it is necessary for stakeholders to integrate technological advancements, including those embedded in blockchain technology in order to establish a more transparent, immutable and verifiable ecosystem. This will increase the confidence of investors as well as make it easy to follow through the necessary checks and balances.
