According to the Miami New Times, an early bitcoin investor and a firm believer in the new economy, Mike Komaransky, recently decided to put his seven-bedroom, 9,452 square-foot mansion near Coral Gables for sale. It has a chef’s kitchen, a summer kitchen, a basketball court and a pool. The asking price is little under $6.5 million, and bitcoin is accepted.
Mike Komaransky reportedly supported every new retailer that accepted bitcoin a few years ago, just to signal confidence in the cryptocurrency. So much so, that he claims to have spent a lot of money in today’s terms. He stated:
“I bought a bunch of stupid T-shirts and a sushi key ring that probably ended up costing like $50,000 worth of Bitcoin.”
Komaransky bought the mansion back in 2014 and offered to pay for it with bitcoin. The previous owner didn’t accept his offer but, now that Komaransky is putting it back on the market, he decided to give buyers the option to pay for it with bitcoin or bitcoin cash. He stated:
“I want to show people that real-world goods and services are payable in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.”
Moreover, he added that he knows these large investments in bitcoin are good protection against inflation, especially for people living in South America. According to him, it’s an interesting use of protection against inflation, as he predicts cryptocurrencies will be more popular in Latin America. Komaransky is currently “semi-retired” in France with his family, but plans to eventually return to Miami where he used the property as a vacation home.
Selling Homes for Bitcoin Isn’t New
The house is listed by the Cassis-Burke collection at the Brown Harris Stevens in Miami. The agents, Stephan Burke and Carol Cassis, stated that this was the first time they had a home for sale for bitcoin. In real estate, however, the option isn’t new.
As previously covered by CCN, back in 2016 a man bought a house using bitcoin in Denmark through Coinify for 117 BTC. Earlier this year, a man decided to buy a home in California with bitcoin, and to his surprise got a 25% windfall (about $1 million) thanks to a surge in the cryptocurrency’s price.
According to Stephan Burke, working with a global currency in real estate could help his business. He stated:
“Miami is not a city; Miami is a country. We have buyers coming in from Chine and Dubai right now, and with Bitcoin Cash, a buyer could come from anywhere in the world, because it’s cryptocurrency that’s not necessarily tied to where you live.”