Build Anything On XION: Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding and fractional investments of tokenized assets make up one of Web3's most promising sectors, with industry forecasts predicting the tokenized asset market could soar to $10 trillion by 2030. Tokenizing real-world assets, such as real estate and art, brings about a wide range of benefits, including fractional ownership, greater accessibility, and transparency, making it the ideal investment vehicle for many. In addition, crowdfunding platforms have grown in popularity as they empower everyday investors to support and benefit from innovative projects, expanding access to investment opportunities like never before. While these blockchain-based platforms certainly have the potential to benefit individuals globally, achieving this level of growth won’t happen overnight. Forecasts often overlook a crucial factor — whether the tools available now are actually user-friendly and accessible enough to drive widespread adoption.

While there are a plethora of Layer 1s out there with the throughput and speed to handle the scale required for blockchain-based crowdfunding to truly benefit users globally, real adoption also requires intuitive, user-centric design and accessible interfaces that make interacting with these assets seamless for everyone, despite technical know-how. This entry of the Build Anything with XION series will explore how XION empowers developers to build consumer-ready crowdfunding applications that benefit from XION’s walletless, gas-abstracted L1, and how the teams at FractIt and Fluxion launched their tokenized investment apps on XION.

Bringing Chain Abstraction to a Trillion-Dollar Market

Fractionalizing assets like commodities and art opens up new opportunities for more democratized ownership and investment. TradFi already offers fractionalized assets in the form of blue-chip art and REITs. But these investment vehicles still suffer the limitations of traditional assets — they can’t be traded 24/7, and off-chain data isn’t nearly as tamper-proof as on-chain transaction information. These assets are also reserved for those who have access to the right channels and information to invest responsibly. But Web3 crowdfunding has changed the game when it comes to democratizing investment. One of the industry’s first big wins for accessible, decentralized capital raising were ICOs, which got early projects off the ground.

By converting these assets into digital tokens on the blockchain, blockchain-based crowdfunding applications introduce benefits such as global accessibility, traceable ownership, improved liquidity, and enhanced transparency. Some of the ways asset tokenization delivers value include:

• An art buyer can evaluate the provenance of an artwork when appraising it, as on-chain data is immutable, traceable, and transparent.

• The owner of an asset can prove their ownership on-chain, allowing them to use the asset as collateral for a loan.

• Investors can trade fractionalized shares of high-value assets, such as real estate or collectables, on secondary markets, enabling access to investment opportunities that were previously limited to wealthy individuals.

While blockchain’s transparency and immutability make it the ideal foundation on which crowdfunding applications can be built, Web3 remains far too complex for the regular person to truly benefit from participating on such platforms and owning tokenized assets. These tokens must not only be easily accessible across various devices to deliver their promised benefits, but they also need to be composable across multiple ecosystems to achieve true liquidity. Tokenized assets’ impact and widespread adoption ride on user-friendly interfaces and seamless interoperability that will ultimately drive widespread adoption and empower users to fully leverage the benefits of tokenized assets.

Putting Crowdfunding Apps In Front of Over 4 Million Users

FractIt is a real estate crowdfunding app built on XION, designed to make real estate investment easy and accessible for everyone. Rather than positioning itself as a dApp specializing in RWA tokenization, FractIt operates as an investment platform that leverages blockchain as a vital part of its infrastructure. By utilizing XION's protocol-level UX, FractIt enhances the user experience through intuitive interfaces and seamless transactions, allowing even those new to Web3 to navigate the complexities of real estate investment with confidence and ease.

Fractit allows users to purchase and trade shares in properties globally, decreasing the barrier to entry for real estate investors. With over 205,000 users, $235,000 AUM, and 260,000+ transactions in their beta, Fractit is already making waves among crowdfunding applications just weeks after launching. 

Fractit isn’t the only crowdfunding application built on XION. Another example is Fluxion, which allows brands to raise funds via their community. Fluxion allows supporters to contribute to projects in exchange for early access to products, exclusive perks, or governance rights. Unlike Web2 crowdfunding platforms, Fluxion leverages Web3’s permissionless, transparent nature to facilitate fund allocation and maintain global accessibility. Fluxion has experienced tremendous growth by launching to XION’s warm audience, with 111,000 users to date and more than 1,000,000 USDC moved on the platform across 300,000 transactions.

Using XION’s Meta Accounts, these apps offer their users a familiar, Web2-like login experience and denominates all its prices in USDC to minimize price volatility. Other crucial features include gas-free transactions for users, easy access via a wide range of devices, and walletless functionality, allowing users to onboard and begin investing with as little friction as possible. Tokenized shares of real estate or other real-world assets purchased on these apps are composable with over 100 interconnected ecosystems through XION’s Meta Account, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade their tokens easily.

Why XION?

With XION, developers can build any application across virtually any vertical catering to a broader range of users than traditional Web3 apps. This enables builders to focus on innovation and growth without being limited by Web3’s persistent UX barriers. This is made possible by XION's first-principles approach to UX, which embeds seamless functionality directly at the protocol level. Key features include familiar onboarding processes, gas abstraction, account abstraction, and frictionless cross-chain transactions, ensuring a smooth and intuitive experience for users.

FractIt’s and Fluxion’s traction and growth highlight not only the demand for user-friendly crowdfunding applications but also XION’s dedication to the success of applications built on its platform. Interested in building your very own crowdfunding application? Get started here.