TL;DR
- Bergen County moves 370,000 property records onto Avalanche blockchain network.
- Balcony partners with county clerk to digitize deeds over five years.
- Project covers real estate assets valued at approximately $240 billion total.
HACKENSACK, N.J. — A project to digitize property records using blockchain technology is underway in New Jersey’s most populous county.
Bergen County officials are working with Balcony, a real estate technology firm, to transfer property deeds onto a blockchain network. The system uses Avalanche, a blockchain platform, to store and manage records for more than 370,000 properties. The total value of real estate covered by the project is estimated at $240 billion.
Tokenization is inevitable, $200b+ of real estate is getting tokenized on Avalanche in Bergen Country, New Jersey
Built for what’s real. pic.twitter.com/WZiYPmlTEs
— Avalanche🔺 (@avax) March 9, 2026
The effort began in May 2025. It is part of a five-year agreement between Balcony and the Bergen County Clerk’s Office. The goal is to replace paper-based deed processing with a digital system that records ownership changes on a blockchain.
Tokenization is the process used in the project
It converts property ownership records into digital files stored on a distributed ledger. This method creates a permanent record of each transaction.
Daniel Silverman, CEO and co-founder of Balcony, said the company chose Avalanche to build its network. The platform allows developers to customize blockchains and set user permissions. These controls are required when handling government documents.
“We’re building our L1 on Avalanche,” Silverman said. “They have been great partners to us, and they allow us to fully customize your blockchain.”
Bergen County became the focus of the project because of its size and the chance to update its real estate systems, according to Silverman. The company signed a five-year contract with the county clerk’s office to handle deed processing on the blockchain.
Silverman described the initiative as the largest blockchain deed program in the United States. He said the system is designed to maintain a permanent record of property ownership. It also aims to reduce deed fraud and provide clear information to property owners and the public.
Blockchain technology stores data in a way that makes past records difficult to alter without detection. This feature is intended to preserve the integrity of property records over time.
The project places Bergen County at the center of an effort to apply blockchain to government record keeping. Other public agencies in the U.S. have tested similar systems, but this program covers a larger number of properties and a higher total value than previous trials.
The county clerk’s office will manage the system in partnership with Balcony. The company is building its own Layer 1 network on Avalanche for the project. Layer 1 refers to the base architecture of a blockchain.
Property fraud remains a concern in real estate transactions
Criminals sometimes file false deeds to claim ownership of properties they do not own. Supporters of blockchain-based records say the technology makes this type of fraud more difficult by creating a clear chain of ownership.
Bergen County residents and title companies will interact with the new system during property sales and transfers. The county plans to maintain public access to records while using the blockchain backend to verify their authenticity.
The project moves New Jersey into a growing list of states exploring blockchain for government use. Colorado, California, and others have tested the technology for various record-keeping functions.
