On May 4, in an office in the northern city of Braga, two men pulled up chairs in front of Apple laptops. João Marques, the seller, passed a crypto wallet address to the buyer, who made a transfer and became the new owner of an apartment in the city worth €110,000 — just under three bitcoin at the time.
As trading in cryptocurrencies soared during the pandemic, some investors struck gold and found themselves with the funds to buy property for the first time. Those with established wealth also added crypto to their portfolios. The 2022 Knight Frank Wealth Report, a global survey of more than 600 wealth managers who manage portfolios for individuals worth over US$30 million, found nearly one in five clients now invest in cryptocurrencies, tokens and coins.
Many of Browne’s clients are younger first-time buyers who “had legitimately profited through taking risks and, I guess, some luck along the way as well. And they’re now…venturing into something else.”Article content Sellers can choose whether to accept fiat or cryptocurrency as payment. Marques, the Braga seller, took his in bitcoin. An entrepreneur who runs a design business and a marketing and communications company, he flips houses and recently sold a chain of bakeries in Budapest. Marques started investing in crypto around five years ago. These days, he manages his crypto accounts by dividing them into two pots — one for doing business and the other to hold for the long term.
U.S. regulators have also taken a more hawkish view of crypto markets this year, as a series of high-profile bankruptcies of crypto lenders and hedge funds left investor assets frozen. The most attractive buyers, Dumontet says, are those with a broad basket of crypto assets. Bitcoin and ethereum are the most common cryptocurrencies to transact in, though some of RealOpen’s buyers also hold stablecoins. RealOpen’s 16 exclusive listings total just under US$160 million — including a four-bedroom Beverly Hills home listed as belonging to Slash from Guns N’Roses for US$8 million . The company declined to say how many properties it had sold since its launch.
Pretend properties with pretend money.