A Bitcoin trader has sold off his Miami mansion for Bitcoin, making it the most expensive cryptocurrency Bitcoin-to-Bitcoin real estate deal to date.
Michael Komaransky initially put his seven-bedroom house in Miami’s ritzy Ponce Davis neighborhood up for sale in August, with an asking price of $6.5million, stating that he would accept either traditional currency or Bitcoin.
Back then, he told the Miami New Times that he made the decision to accept Bitcoin as a way ‘to show people that real-world goods and services are payable in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.’
Trader Michael Komaransky sold his $6million Miami home to a buyer who paid in Bitcoin
Komaransky inititally put the home up for sale in August, stating he would accept either US dollars or Bitcoin – hoping that someone would be willing to pay him in Bitcoin
While he’d have been happy to take US legal tender as payment, he hoped that someone would actually avail themselves of the Bitcoin option because it ‘is digital currency that no one controls, and it’s a very, very liberating currency. And there’s not much use to a currency if you can’t spend it somewhere.’
Flash forward five-and-a-half months and it seems his Bitcoin sale wish was fulfilled.
Komaransky officially sold the home for about 455 Bitcoin – the equivalent of $6million – on February 1, The Real Deal reported.
The deal was made entirely in Bitcoin, making it not only the most expensive Bitcoin-to-Bitcoin property sale – meaning that the Bitcoin was not converted to US dollars first – but also the second known Bitcoin real estate sale in Florida the report said.
According to Komaransky’s Brown Harris Stevens Miami real estate agents, the house went under contract on January 8, with the unnamed buyer making the Bitcoin payment in installments.
The Pulse International Realty agent representing the buyer said that the buyer was an early Bitcoin investor and noted that the deal ‘went rather smoothly’ since both he and Komarasky had ‘the same mindset.’
Komaransky’s property sale is being recorded in dollars because of statewide limitations.
This seven-bedroom home was sold for about 455 Bitcoin, the equivalent of about $6million
The unnamed buyer paid Komaransky in installments and the deal closed on February 1
Despite this, his real estate agents, Stephan Burke and Carol Cassis, are hoping that the deal will show that selling real estate for Bitcoin can be a legitimate opportunity.
‘We wanted to show those people that it’s possible to do [a high-end sale],’ Cassis told The Real Deal, adding that ‘It’s possible to do it in a legal frame, in a perfect way, when you have the right team doing it.’
Burke and Cassis had previously closed a deal in December, in which a Miami condo owner sold his home to a Bitcoin entrepreneur for $275,000 worth of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin as payment for real estate seems to be a growing market, with a website, Bitcoin Real Estate, devoted to listing properties around the world that can be purchased using Bitcoin.
One of the issues that might be impeding the more widespread use of Bitcoin as payment for real estate is the fact that the cryptocurrency has a reputation as being an unstable currency due to rapid market fluctuations.
At the time of Komaransky’s house sale, 1 Bitcoin was said to have been worth about $9,200. However, just weeks earlier, in December, the same Bitcoin would’ve been valued at $19,500.
Real estate agent Burke told Vice that Komaransky had approached him about the prospect of buying a home using Bitcoin in 2014.
At that time, they were unable to find someone willing to sell a home in exchange for Bitcoin, though. Instead, they took Komaransky’s Bitcoin and then converted it to cash in order to complete the deal.
Komaransky retired at age 38 in 2017. During his 16 year career as a trader, he founded a cryptocurrency trading business at DRW Holdings in 2014, according to Forbes.
Komaransky purchased the more than 9,400-square-foot Miami property – which he has now sold – for $4.6million in 2014.