Their First Rodeo: Why Are DAOs Suddenly Leaping Into Wyoming Real Estate?
Following state passage of pro-crypto laws, distributed autonomous organizations are dropping thousands on wild—and sometimes uninhabitable—tracts of land.
The tweet, accompanied by a link to a Zillow listing for a $4.7 million abandoned ghost town in Colorado, was almost certainly a joke—but then again, maybe not. The message was posted by @CityDAO, the account representing a 10,000-member distributed autonomous organization that already owns a 40-acre plot near Cody, Wyo. With CityDAO’s mission to “build the future of real estate ownership on chain,” the whole thing—the desire to buy a town, the commitment to scooping up wild land in Wyoming, the whispers of wanting to purchase Kanye West’s 4,000-acre ranch—seemed both on brand and off the rails.
Since its founding last July, CityDAO has raised $7 million from its membership, which includes major crypto players such as Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. CityDAO is one of the flashier DAO projects to take root in Wyoming, which has fast established itself as the most crypto-friendly state in the union. But it’s not the only collective to zero in on Western real estate. Kitchen Lands DAO LLC, with three members, bought 35 acres in Sheridan, Wyo., for $25,000, and The Crypto Coalition, a group of members from decentralized venture capital organization Jade Protocol, will potentially buy land in the state as well.