Over the last few years, there's been growing interest in applying blockchain technology and tokenization to commercial real estate. In theory, tokenization, combined with fractional ownership structures, would allow companies to sell interests to investors of all sizes, expanding markets and unlocking additional value. Distributed ledger technology could automate the process, making activities efficient enough for significant market adoption.

But the distance between realizing the vision and making it happen is more complex than clicking your heels together and saying, "There's no place like crypto."

"One of the things about real estate that makes it interesting here is that it's traditionally an investable asset class, but it's difficult for individuals to do," Scott Shechtman, head of new markets at Nasdaq's market technology business unit, tells GlobeSt.com. "A major steppingstone is the launch of secondary markets for individual properties. It's the stage of the journey the real estate industry is at. You're seeing a range of ventures that are looking at taking individual properties, whether residential or commercial, and fractionalizing them for trading."