Billionaire real estate investor Grant Cardone said Wednesday that he added an additional $100 million to Bitcoin as part of a strategy to combine the asset with income-generating real estate, he said during a fireside chat at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami.
“We simply added another $100 million in Bitcoin,” Cardone said, describing a recent real estate deal in which BTC was paired with $235 million in assets, a hybrid strategy he believes will outperform real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Cardone said traditional REITs are structurally constrained. “These companies will never be able to hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets,” he said. “We believe that by combining real estate and Bitcoin […] I would end up with a 22% to 32% return. “
The real estate investor said the latest allocation builds on earlier Bitcoin purchases in 2025, when Cardone Capital added 1,000 Bitcoin to its balance sheet, which was then worth just over $100 million, bringing the firm’s total Bitcoin exposure to about $200 million.
The real estate mogul said the structure combines two asset types in one investment vehicle. “I had two properties and we just brought them together to form an LLC,” Cardone said.
He explained that the approach also includes bringing new investors into Bitcoin. “Eighty percent of the people investing in the fund own zero Bitcoin,” he said, adding that the strategy does not involve bringing real estate directly into the blockchain orbit.
“I wouldn’t put real estate on the blockchain,” Cardone said. “All I did was buy a bunch of Bitcoin and stuff it into the discount gap.”
However, in February this year, the investor stated in an X post that Cardone Capital planned to tokenize its holdings to provide investors with “collateral and liquidity in the secondary market.” At the time, he also stated that the company aimed to become a market leader in large-scale asset tokenization.
During the Consensus conference, Cardon explained that his hybrid strategy combines stable cash flow with Bitcoin exposure. “If Bitcoin goes to zero, I’m not going to give up on real estate.” He said the combined model is designed to compete with existing real estate structures. “I want to tear [their] Standoff,” referring to competitive investments without the risks of Bitcoin.