The digitalisation of the real estate market: New evidence from the most prominent crypto hacker attacks

Blockchain innovations, particularly real estate tokens, have revolutionised the real estate market, enhancing efficiency, security, and transparency. However, the lurking threat of crypto hacker attacks on the digital real estate market demands immediate attention. We examine the impact of eight crypto hacker attacks on five types of real estate tokens. Our volatility spillover test results reveal that the stolen Ethereum have a statistically significant volatility spillover effect on the real estate token market, particularly for large capitalisation TokenFi and Hifi Finance tokens, which involve real estate investment returns. In contrast, the Propy and Propchain tokens, related to real estate transactions, show no statistically significant volatility spillover effect. This disparity underscores the varying vulnerability of different real estate tokens to the heists, depending on their market capitalisation and application. Further tests uncover market inefficiency and low liquidity post-attack, indicating that negative signals from crypto hacker attacks trigger irrational investor behaviour. Our findings highlight the urgent need for robust security measures in the digital real estate market to mitigate the negative impacts of crypto hacker attacks.