Venezuela’s Most Expensive House Put up for Sale at $20m, Owner Will Accept Crypto
Venezuela’s most expensive house has been put up for sale – and its vendor is willing to accept payment in crypto. Tokens are widely accepted as a form of payment throughout the Latin American nation, but the sale of the $20 million property would be a major landmark for crypto adoption in the country.
The nation’s government – which is thought to have considerable bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) reserves – has pushed the idea of a crypto-powered economy. It has also launched its own oil-backed coin, named the petro (PTR), partially in a bid to circumnavigate international sanctions imposed upon it by the USA and its allies. Many state-owned organs also operate crypto mining operations.
But should a buyer decide to pay in crypto for the property, it would be a major turning point for crypto’s cause in the private sector – with most adoption-related breakthroughs thus far taking place in the remittance field. Supermarkets and other stores accept BTC and other coins, but large-scale crypto-powered real estate deals remain terra incognita in Venezuela.
The house, the media outlet Amando reported, is a mansion belonging to the brother of the founder of domestic banking giant Banesco. The media outlet explained that the property has a commanding view of the capital, Caracas.
It was listed for sale earlier this year for an asking price of $26 million, and features 14 bedroom suites, 20 bathrooms, a bar, an elevator, a cinema, a chapel, a gym, a hair salon, massage room, a swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, parking space for 12 vehicles, and 15,000 square meters of land.
However, its owner has now dropped his asking price down to $20 million – and told real estate agencies that he is prepared to accept crypto as a form of payment.
More Houses Sold for Crypto in Venezuela?
The media outlet quoted Centeno Díaz, the Founder of InmuebleCoin, a domestic real estate startup, as stating that most crypto-powered property deals in the nation have thus far involved transactions worth less than $50,000. Buyers and vendors, Díaz added, tend to be “young people with considerable knowledge of the [crypto] industry.”
Díaz also noted that “there are no statistics on the volume of real estate transactions carried out in cryptocurrencies” – and that local law did not specify how crypto-powered deals should be calculated.
As such, the InmuebleCoin chief concluded, vendors and buyers hoping to trade real estate for tokens needed to negotiate their own contractual terms – and not rely on legal systems to help.
