By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Elevated Returns, a hospitality centric asset management company, raised $18 million in the first equity ICO hosted on the Indiegogo platform.
As it was announced by asset management firm Elevated Returns, the owner of St. Regis Aspen, accredited investors had bought all Aspen Coins offered for purchase though Indiegogo platform. It was Indiegogo’s first security token ICO that brought the company $18 million.
As a result, investors have received a small ownership stake in the St. Regis Aspen Resort. CoinSpeaker has already reported that it is an internationally-recognized resort that represents itself a luxury hotel with food and beverage outlets as well as impressive indoor and outdoor conference and banquet venues where guests can enjoy fantastic views on the Rocky Mountains.
The price of one token amounted to $1. Those who wanted to participate in this tokenized real estate offering called Aspen Digital had to meet some serious requirements: they needed to be accredited investors and the minimum allowed amount of tokens for each investor was at least 10,000 tokens.
Aspen Digital is one of the first offerings of its kind. Security tokens that were sold represent themselves real investment contracts while more traditional utility tokens have a function of coupons for a product or service. So, Aspen Coin is a share in a single-asset real estate investment trust of $18 million in St. Regis Aspen equity.
Jason Kirschenbaum, director at Elevated Returns, commented their innovative approach to investments in the sphere of real estate the following way:
“The Aspen Digital closing not only represents a new coin on the market that is asset-backed, it also establishes a blueprint for future real estate tokenization. The future of real estate investing is one that provides global exposure, transparency, public access and liquidity, all of which are elements that can be delivered through blockchain technology.”
The tokens, that were created on the base of the ERC-20 token standard, were available for purchase on Indiegogo through a partnership with Templum Markets LLC, a FINRA and SEC-registered operator. Though from the technical point of view, it could be possible to hold Aspen Coins in any Ethereum wallet, the initial offering and secondary trading of digital assets as securities was organized through Templum’s alternative trading system (ATS). It was needed to meet federal securities regulations.
Stephane De Baets, president of Elevated Returns, stated:
“While there is an undeniable trend of assets migrating to the blockchain and a need for cryptocurrencies to be backed by collateral of some sort, these are truly the early days for the industry, which is why it is critical for offering sponsors like Elevated Returns to assemble the necessary components to be successful.”
Having an aim to create an effective ecosystem, Elevated Returns acquired a South Asian broker-dealer known as Seamico Securities. According to the statement, the company was founded in 1974 and has wide distribution capability, it offers securities brokerage, securities and derivatives trading, investment advisory service, securities borrowing and lending as well as a number of other services. This deal will help Elevated Returns get closer to Asian-based institutional investments and enjoy a possibility to grow its activities in new markets.