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TechCrunch Founder's Apartment to Be Sold as NFT
Michael Arrington’s real estate-backed NFT will be sold through blockchain platform Propy.
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:19 a.m. Published May 25, 2021, 2:10 p.m.
TechCrunch founder and crypto investor Michael Arrington is selling an apartment in Kiev via a non-fungible token (NFT).
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Arrington purchased the Ukraine apartment in 2017 through the real estate platform Propy, using Ethereum and smart contracts to settle the deal. In a sign of how the industry has evolved in the intervening four years, Propy will be auctioning the same property but this time as a real estate-backed NFT. The starting price is $20,000.
In a call with CoinDesk, Arrington said the move is no mere NFT gimmick. It could one day open the doors to novel lending and borrowing schemes in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).
“We are increasingly excited about the role of NFTs in DeFi,” Arrington said. “With homes and really anything in the real world being tokenized, you can plug that physical item into DeFi, assuming the legal niceties are ironed out, and that’s fascinating.”
The auction process will involve the seller signing proprietary legal papers for the NFT to transfer ownership to any future buyers. After the auction is complete the seller will receive payment in cryptocurrency, Propy said.
Read more: Virtual Property Sells for $1.5M in Ether, Smashing NFT Record
"The Kiev property is owned by an USA-based entity," Propy explained in a press release. "The new owner of the NFT will become the owner of the entity and thus the property itself. This process is repeated every time the NFT is resold."
The real estate-backed NFT also includes digital art by Kiev graffiti artist Chizz.
Propy is backed by blockchain investor Tim Draper, and claims to have completed over $1 billion worth of transactions through its online platform.
Further updates on the real estate NFT can be found here.
Zack Seward contributed reporting.
UPDATE (May 25, 17:42 UTC): Adds comment from Michael Arrington.
Tanzeel Akhtar
Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.
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