A U.S. based buyer named Amanda is the lucky bidder of a home in Gulfport, outside of Tampa, Florida, that was auctioned off as a non-fungible token, or NFT last week.
The four-bedroom, 2.5 bathroom property was the first NFT house sold in the U.S. According to an article in the Tampa Bay Times, the property rights were transferred to the limited liability corporation Never Forget to HODL LLC. The phrase HODL means “hold on for dear life” and, according to the article, is commonly used by crypto-currency traders.
The home was listed by a local real estate investor, Leslie Alessandra, who also is the founder of blockchain company DeFi Unlimited.
The transaction was handled by Propy, a real estate blockchain firm that developed the framework that allows turning real estate properties into NFTs and selling them over the Internet.
According to Propy, it’s done by placing the record of the purchase on the immutable blockchain and provides access to the legal documents signifying ownership. This potentially minimizes costs for the buyers and streamlines the home buying process by letting them buy a property in a few minutes.
Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Propy, notes that “NFT sales reached $4 billion in December 2021 and real-world assets will soon represent a significant portion of that market.”
To participate in the auction, bidders had to provide “identification and their full name to authenticate home ownership,” says Karayaneva. No information was disclosed about the buyer other than the name Amanda and initials “A.J.”
