'We're Not Going To Ignore What's Happening In Front Of Our Eyes': Inside Janover's Push Into Crypto

Commercial real estate cryptocurrency holders have been waiting for years to see if digital currency can find its footing in the sector. Despite some hype and hope, value fluctuations, high fees and lack of regulation have held usage back.

But investors are growing more confident in its prospects — crypto holdings from corporate entities are expected to more than double to $50B this year. And with new support from the federal government, it appears cryptocurrency is on its way to being as legitimized in the U.S. as the dollar. 

Janover is following the government's lead and allowing businesses to make payments for its services with bitcoin starting this quarter. 

"We're saying, 'Hey, we're not going to ignore what's happening right in front of our eyes,'" CEO Blake Janover told Bisnow. 

Founded in Boca Raton in 2019, Janover offers multifamily software-as-a-service tools to help brokers connect with lenders, loan sourcing and origination, as well as streamlining business operations. It serves over 1,000 lenders and 1 million yearly users.

The company has given $200B in loan applications to date, with an average transaction amount lately of $12K. It regained compliance with the Nasdaq on Jan. 13 after being notified in July that it was not maintaining the minimum closing bid price.

Janover said incorporating cryptocurrency was a nonstarter for the company before now. The money was there, the excitement was there, but the data and government support weren't. 

Then, the SEC allowed bitcoin to be traded on traditional stock exchanges last January. Then President Donald Trump, who owns his own coin, was elected and appointed crypto-positive David Sacks as "White House AI and Crypto Czar." 

In one of Trump's first executive orders, he created a group to establish regulation for all digital assets. The President’s Working Group on Digital Assets, led by Sacks, will also consider taking control of the bitcoin, ethereal and other tokens seized from criminals.

The numbers also show a turning point for crypto. Stablecoin reached almost $30T in annual activity across 4.6 billion transactions in 2024. Stablecoin  serves as an alternative to less predictable cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Its value is tied to another asset and gives it a stable price. It can be used in blockchain financial and goods and services transactions.

The stablecoin data provided the missing piece for serious conversations to begin between Janover and Chief Financial Officer Bruce Rosenbloom about how to incorporate cryptocurrency into the business. 

The two eventually landed on a soft rollout of accepting bitcoin payments from their clients, businesses looking for financing options that are well-versed in the practice. Customers can use the payment option across services — data and software licensing as well as debt payments and fees. Further down the line, the company wants to integrate investment management distribution into the mix. 

Other commercial real estate companies are getting their feet wet with experimentation of how crypto can fit into their business models.

Developer SteelWave in May launched a $500M fund that allows investors to convert their limited-partner stakes into digital tokens for CRE investment. Essentially, its vision was a coin backed by CRE assets, its CEO told the San Francisco Business Times.

Private direct lender Hankey Capital, which originates bridge financing from $5M to $300M, launched a lending program Jan. 10. Crypto holders can use their bitcoin as collateral to receive full financing instead of a large down payment in dollars. 

Stating the intention to take crypto as a payment method is one thing. Implementing digital currency into a safe bet is another. Janover is modeling its setup after Coinbase's, and Janover talks to the platform's institutional division to integrate the process and protocol it is using to accept crypto. 

The company also had to source banks that would allow it to accept bitcoin. Banks supporting BTC include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. 

Clients need to add their wallet to Janover's system beforehand so that when it's time to make a payment, the transfer will be instant and not include extra fees. Using bitcoin is faster than a wire transfer and cheaper than paying with a credit card. Cryptocurrencies don't charge the 3% transaction fee other payment methods, like PayPal, do. Instead, BTC purchases often charge less than 1%.

A point of contention surrounding crypto has been value fluctuation. Traditional stock exchanges tend to change tepidly. Nasdaq valuation has been up consistently since October, posting monthly increases ranging from 1% to 6%.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, had a good December, with its value rising 6.57%. But just 30 days prior, it was down 2.95%. A month before that, on Oct. 31, it was up 37.17%. Bitcoin can go up by 3% one day, like Jan. 5, and slide 5% the next.

Janover is charging in U.S. dollars. Payments made using bitcoin will instantly transfer into USD based on that day's value of the cryptocurrency, so a change in valuation wouldn't affect Janover’s business.

"If we decide, 'Hey, we're going to keep some of it in bitcoin for weeks or days or months or years,' and it goes up a lot or down a lot, that would affect us, but that's not where we are today," Janover said.

Janover is in the final stages of crypto implementation and is setting up banking. 

The firm is doing this in tandem with working on its year-end financial statements, so everything is "one step at a time," Janover said.

Janover brought in $611K in profit in the third quarter. Its annual revenue for that quarter amounted to $480K, a 58% increase from the same time last year.

However, even though there's a promise of government regulation, the reality is that there still isn't much on the books past SEC approval and an executive order.

But Janover said there isn’t much risk in taking bitcoin as a payment. 

"I don't see us in a place where we have some pronounced risk from a regulatory perspective," he said.

He said he expects to see money start pouring into crypto in a bigger way, but he is agnostic about that growth. Janover said the company’s focus is providing the option for those who want it rather than parsing out how big the pool is. 

"I don't think it's our place to ask who's got crypto," he said. "We're going to learn as we go, you know?"

CORRECTION, JAN. 31, 2:25 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to clarify Janover’s services and stock market status.