Bitcoin Forum

Real estate tycoon Ben Shaoul has sold a retail condo in Manhattan’s prestigious Upper East Side for $15.3 million in Bitcoin (BTC). The news was reported by New York real estate magazine The Real Deal on Nov. 1.

Shaoul — who is president of the Magnum Real Estate Group — sold the 11,400-square-foot property to a Taiwan-based entity “Affluent International LCC,” according to a person familiar with the deal.

https://ct.com/80eu

I've heard about this news and it's an amazing one. This shows that bitcoin is good for every transaction that we want to commit. It's not just for those beliefs about its bad past but we're now living in the modern days where bitcoin is good as the fiat as payment.
We're actually going to see more of this in the near future and thanks to those media that they're spreading the good news. Although sometimes they are the ones that spread bad news about bitcoin.

It's one of the things that most people here dreamed for, adoption. For BTCitcoin to be accepted as payment for a real estate property is one step closer on making that dream a reality. Small trades have already happened countless times before but its the big ones like this that makes the buzz with the media, which in turn would also be a great exposure not only for BTCitcoin but for the rest of cryptocurrencies as well. It's only a matter of time 'til everyone would opt on receiving BTCtc and other cryptocurrencies rather than the traditional fiat.

This could only happen if both the buyer and seller are familiar and would agree to transact using bitcoin. I've read a lot of people who are buying a house using cryptocurrency and it is great to hear that cryptocurrency is being utilized this way by some people. I really hope that time will come that you can use bitcoin anywhere from paying bills, buying equipments and goods, payment for services and even daily bus fair and etc.

Bitcoin has gone from a mere experiment to a real money. When Bitcoin was used to buy two boxes of pizza many years ago, it was done for the sake of experimenting or trying to show that Bitcoin could actually be used for buying stuff instead of using fiat. From then on, Bitcoin has grown to be both a currency and asset, but more of an asset nowadays. But this new transaction proves two points, that Bitcoin is not anymore the old experiment. It is a real currency that can buy properties worth millions in USD. And second, that Bitcoin is still a currency more than just an asset.

Bitcoin really evolves very fast, imagine, from captcha payment and now we are all aiming to have at least 1 Bitcoin that we will hold until it became million dollar worth. Even here in our countries, 2 years ago when you speak with your neighbors about it, they don't have any idea at all, and now I couldn't believe, they are also holding some Bitcoins and altcoins, thinking they are not updated in the internet world.

This is what is called bitcoin is the future and it's one proof that the development of bitcoin will gradually become multi-functional as an alternative payment tool such as fiat currency.
but in my opinion bitcoin cannot completely replace fiat currency and both will function to complement each other and when in regions or stores that do not provide payment using bitcoin can use fiat currency, and this is very good news to convince non-believers in Bitcoin and can introduce bitcoin to those who don't know it evenly and need to know it.

Bit of a dream coming true. Hard to imagine being used for a lot of high volume transactions instead of the "safer" option, which would be fiat currencies.

I wonder, how did they set the exchange rate? Did they confirm the price of BTC and tether it to that price, while the other party took a couple of hours/days to make the payment, or did the payment have to be instant.

I would love to see a property or car contract where the deal was done via BTC...

Is the real estate tycoon hedging his portfolio from real estate to Bitcoin? He can accept fiat payment, but why Bitcoin? 8)

I do not understand why people get so exited about things like this, after all..... Bitcoin is Money and it should be used as a currency to buy anything, no matter how expensive it is. We are trading Billions of Dollars daily on Bitcoin exchanges and nobody is jumping up and down about that.  ::)

Bitcoin can be used for the payment for any goods or services, if the two parties agree to it, the problem is when those bitcoins are immediately converted to Fiat or if this transaction is done via payment processors. I can pay for something with cattle if I wanted to and nobody can stop me.  :P

this looks exciting and all for bitcoin believers around here but i can't help but wonder about the tax implications of doing something like this in New York. i am not really familiar with NY state laws but since US hasn't accepted bitcoin as a currency but only as a commodity, doesn't it mean that he now has to pay a gigantic tax on his $15.3 million purchase of a commodity?

It is amazing in the last ten years how much BTC has grown and I wish I had taken part in purchasing a decent amount of Bitcoin when it was much cheaper but we had some bad luck in that regard but KUDOS to all the early adopters who did very well and were able to accumulate large holdings and purchase luxury goods and assets like lambos and real estate. Of course if I had big money in Bitcoin I would rather purchase the real estate in order to make and procure some passive income as the lambo would depreciate in value and be a liability.

whether bitcoin is suitable as a payment instrument while the value is unstable and very volatile, I think the seller and the buyer already know the risk about bitcoin, maybe in the future the value of bitcoin will become more stable.

We have seen houses and flats and mansions bough for bitcoins for a long time, this is hardly news.

But, reading the article, this could really be news if he deal will ever be made:

http://UK Real Estate Firm Accepts Bitcoin for Sale of 150-Year-Old Church (https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-real-estate-firm-accepts-bitcoin-for-sale-of-150-year-old-church)

Just think about the impact of the news, mainly for the Christian world and our point of view.
A church is sold for bitcoin, forget flats, penthouses, malls or anything else, a church!!!!!  ;D



First, there was no experiment, the man really wanted a pizza.
Second, Laszlo didn't pay for the pizza directly, he paid Jercos 10k BTC and Jercos ordered the pizza with his credit card and had it delivered to his home.

I agree with your take, bitcoin has monetary value and enough liquidity that it can be converted easily to fiat, and with the privacy measures of wallets it's very secure if you know how to protect yourself. The only issue is the volatility which scare people away from using it or prompts them to use a payment processor. So those that actually sell properties directly through bitcoins must be willing to hodl and navigate through the market, hence becoming investors.

That link scares me, so I'm not going to click on it and I wish OP had quoted the article or at least commented on it more--but I do appreciate mentioning this deal, as I find it interesting.

I wonder if the buyer was an old-school bitcoin whale who'd mined bitcoin in the early days or if he/she made a huge profit in one of the big booms bitcoin has gone through.  I can't imagine someone would purchase that much bitcoin just to buy some real estate, since it certainly isn't the standard way of paying for it.  Guess I'll never know, but it is kinda cool that someone made a purchase like this.

Real estate in Manhattan is so overpriced, however.  I love NYC but I couldn't imagine living there unless I had an important Wall Street job, which I never will.  And the standard apartments that common folks can afford are like shoeboxes.  You'd have to spend a hell of a lot of bitcoin just to rent one of those, and I don't think it's worth it. 

Granted, I don't really follow crypto news all that closely, but I haven't heard about too many real estate deals involving bitcoin as the payment method.  It certainly isn't common.

I don't think bitcoin can be a stable coin, prices are not volatile but let's get out of the unusual mind of people posting here, they might want to sell assets because they want to buy lots of bitcoin, so they sell their assets and hold bitcoin now

This is a proof that Bitcoin could  be applied to almost any industry that has to do payment transactions though we should not assume this is going to be the trend now since the real estate industry is just beginning to tap this emerging technology and there will be people who would resist change that could hinder its adoption.

Though its a rare case of a prime real estate being sold for Bitcoin, it is still a boon to the crypto industry yet I think it will be years away before crypto would be the medium of exchange in the real estate sector.

Now I was wondering whatever happened to those crypto projects focusing on the real estate industry since I've never heard any  news from them lately. :)

This is the power of bitcoin that we cannot control, As more and more big companies continue to accept bitcoin, As well as popular personalities in various industries that will have an interest in investing in bitcoin. And it is certain that the government will see the importance of bitcoin and blockchain as well.

At last someone got the balls to use such a huge amount of Bitcoins for a purchase. I must be honest i am quite surprised to see this even though it helps in the adoption of bitcoin as a mode of payment. But i never imagined it would be with such a huge amount of coins especially when the value of bitcoin is now known all over the entire world. We are not back in the days when bitcoin was worth nothing and yet that dude used thousands of bitcoin all for a pizza.

Yeah, I heard that starbucks already accepted cryptocurrency for the payment of every items, this could be a good news for everyone. All of the people will now realize that we cannot only buy pizza with bitcoin but rather a huge investment such as condo ,lot and many more. Wish I could buy that too soon with the amount of altcoin that I have.

We are already day by day adopting by famous and big companies, well in fact, Coca Cola also in the process of checking how they are going to adopt blockchain as their innovation in their company, so it can create more efficient and effective work on their end, which is a very good thing as this will be a good footstep in the business industry. Once Coca cola testify this helps a lot then it will be a big hit.

I am also curious to know how this deal was structured to bypass local laws and regulations. In my country Bitcoin is defined as a commodity and not seen as legal tender, so you are not legally allowed to use it as legal tender, but they do allow you to use it for trades.

Large deals like this will surely draw a lot of attention from the legislators and the rule makers, so they might expect some push back from the government if it was done in the wrong manner. On the other hand, if you want to swap your car for a small house and the buyer and seller agree to that, then nobody can stop that from happening.  :P

That is awesome. Bitcoin has really evolved and becomes a new payment system method. People out there can used bitcoin to pay anything they want to buy with bitcoin. That is a small example of the used of bitcoin, and we will see another sample from day by day, and that proves bitcoin can work together with fiat. People can choose what they want to use to pay, whether for using fiat or bitcoin, and we see bitcoin can follow the existing payment method. People will soon know that besides using fiat, credit card, and debit card, they can also use bitcoin for the payment. And if we compare with the pizza story, then that news was big news for people who are involved in the economy field so that can open their eyes and mind that bitcoin can be another option to buying something.

now thats cool  . i think this was the most expensive property sold in btc value that i ever saw because before i only saw someone who sold his own house and lot for about 39k usd   , it was on our own country actually  but its nice to see that expensive things are now being bought by btc and other cryptos  . soon people can now buy almost anything they want without the need of using thier cards and fiat  . these things can also help the price to go up which makes it even more cooler .

Not really,,, I love bitcoin but this kind of news does not get my blood pumping.

Bitcoin is not good for every transaction anyway,,, try paying for tea at my place where it will cost you less than 200 satoshi. If you are lucky you pay a small fee that costs about half that price. If you are luckier a coffee seller will not mind accepting 500 inputs of 200 satoshi a day;)

Yes I know Lightning but we all know nobody really is using it yet.

It's great to hear about real estate buying through cryptocurrency payments. There is also one here in our country that also entered blockchain system which also allows buying and selling real estate property and accept crypto coins. Indeed a nice step for adoption in different fields. That pizza opened an opportunity that bitcoin payments is really possible.

The case might be either he's a btc enthusiast or just another big time investor who's trying to take the extraordinary risks and advantage of the speculated bull run in 2020. That's a huge amount for a btc payment I cant believe this transaction went smooth or maybe not?

I think if the seller gives the opportunity to make purchases using bitcoin then surely there will be many people who are interested in that information and I think the seller has understood what bitcoin is and doesn't want to waste that golden opportunity to be able to get a lot of bitcoin because I'm sure sellers have a mind that bitcoin can potentially be very expensive.

another scenario that must look at and for the non crypto people to evaluate.while they are denying the advantage of this currency still progress is happening.15$ million is not a small amount to deny that cryptocurrency is really making step towards future.
even what is his intention the thing is we must be thankful that he chooses crypto ways of payment than fiat,and with the broadcast happen,business owners might look at how this big deal goes for bitcoin and may consider using as well.

This is a welcome development and a huge stepping stone in bringing massive adoption of the use of bitcoin and other related cryptocurrencies into mainstream of the worlds economy in terms of carrying out daily transactions. This also further buttress the fact that cryptocurrencies can be used to carryout numerous legit businesses within any sector of the worlds economy. Intact BTC is here to stay as a means of exchange.

This is not the first that a big real estate transaction happened using Bitcoin, nor will this be the last. Aside from real estate properties, there is a good market for cars and other luxurious goods with Bitcoin. Can this be because there is really a good number of millionaires in Bitcoin and that they, of course, prefer to use their Bitcoin with high-value purchases rather than waste them with a cup of coffee or grocery items? This is actually telling is the state of adoption with cryptocurrency, that it is a big success with high-ticket items but somewhat a failure with ordinary or everyday goods. Or is this not telling us that Bitcoin is really for the rich and not so much for the poor?

Let's compare and imagine the topic:
2010: One pizza for 10000BTC at today's Bitcoin price is worth $ 90,000,000
In 2019: the prestigious Upper East Side Residence in Manhattan for 15.3 million $ in Bitcoin equivalent to 1700 BTC.
What a fair deal !!!! I mean the pizza deal !!!!!!
What a pizza that cost about 10,000 BTC which is equivalent to  90 million $ today. Would it have been possible for the man who bought the pizza at that price to imagine that the price of this pizza would be the price of the most expensive apartment in Manhattan. Definitely not otherwise he died after eating pizza directly.

I appreciate hearing news about sealed transactions using Bitcoin as actual currency, such as this one cited by the OP. If my memory serves me right, there is also a particular sale of a real estate property here in my country which is also offered in Bitcoin price. There was in fact another one which was actually posted in our local section here in this forum which involves the sale of a resort for Bitcoin. I guess, these cases signify that Bitcoin adoption as a currency is indeed growing.


Are you referring to CEstates? I also want to know how they are faring. But if we dig a little about altcoin projects involving the sale, rent or whatever of real estates, many of them, if not all, are now in their terminal phase. Atlant, REAL, and more are now touching rock bottom. They all look dying.  

Many churches in Europe are for sale, this is nothing new, they are becoming empty buildings that almost no one enters. I do not see that Christians would be worried or rebellious about selling some church for Bitcoin, especially if it is a church in the UK (Anglican Church).

I realize this may be the first example of selling church for BTC (though we cannot be sure), but if we accept BTC is a currency, then it should be no surprise that the Church is beginning to think the same.

https://i.imgur.com/HxgVOi7.jpg

Well, Catholic Church are rich in my country they own a lot of shares in stock market and one of the biggest stockholder of a well known company, if they see bitcoin as a good opportunity for sure they will invest as well. There are so many good services of every Church, they serve the community and they also need money to run their Church. Everyone can sell as long as they fully own it, bitcoin becomes a good currency now its a good choice for a real estate owner to transfer their property just to have bitcoin.

This is very good news. Buy using Bitcoin he bought himself free advertising in the news. Now people are repeating his name and he'll go in history as the person who wasn't afraid to buy a 15 million apartment for Bitcoin in times when it still was unstable.
The baad part of this deal is that he chose a very volatile period for Bitcoin. We are between bear and bull and it's hard to say how long this sideways trend will last. Also if he sold that between october 27 and november 7 he could he could have lost a 100k in minutes while trying to sell toe coins he got. When you're holding 15 million one minute you can be up 100k and a minute later down 200k. :D

This goes to show how far bitcoin has come from the state it was back in the begging, and it also show how easily and how smooth things become when transactions are bitcoin based, imagine if this guy tried to buy the mansion with fiat, it would have been a mess and it would taken him ages to get the money from his bank either cash or bank transfers, and with bitcoin it would have been a simple transfer that could be completed within hours if not minutes, and that is why bitcoin is extremely valuable asset that could change how we do these kind of large transactions and make our lives easier and the processes faster. 

I didn't mean it that way, probably I should have added a bit to that remarks....

I don't care about the church views but about the contrasts, nobody cares when a church is turned into a library but it makes the news when it becomes a skating ring, it's about the clashes of old and new.
And what better contrast than an old and church that is a symbol of the old times and devoted more to the spiritual side being bought with bitcoin, the symbol of new money, a thing that isn't physical either, and is one of the things announcing a new era.

This is certainly not the only real-estate deal that has gone through for Bitcoin, but it does help to underline its increasing value in today's world.

Somebody would rather have around 1,500 BTC instead of a condo in Manhattan, pretty crazy if you think about it.

This trend is not new. People see a profit in Bitcoin thats why they purposefully sell a property for coins. I am sure this person will get much more profit in the future than it would be as $15.3 in fiat.

I agree today the market is down and halving is coming next year
its really possible that he will get more profit someday.

Bitcoin really changed the world and it uses now as an alternative payment and also for buying other services that accept cryptocurrency. And I think that Satoshi didn't expect that it will become popular and even thou he left the project. And one thing that I didn't get on why he is hiding? Is it for his security? Or he's one of the creator of altcoins? Who knows right?

And I think that after 10 years, Bitcoin will surely dominate the payment method and people will surely use electronic cash than paper cash. And the value of bitcoin will depend on the people who invested or if it can be manipulate the value.