The first-ever real house was sold via NFT — meet the new type of tokens backed by physical real estate

It seems that crypto winter is really smoothly coming to an end and there is a bull market ahead. The NFT market, cryptocurrencies, and metaverse were on pause. However, virtual worlds are beginning to fill with movement again. This time, the extraordinary (so far) news comes from the USA. A real house was sold as an NFT (NFTs are non-fungible tokens or digital tags attached to all sorts of objects and act as digital certificates of the asset and ownership of it.) for $175,000 in Columbia, South Carolina.

The newly renovated home has three bedrooms, a large living and dining room with a kitchen, a master bedroom with a walk-in closet and a double vanity. 

The rental property was sold by the Web3 subsidiary of real estate company Roofstock — Roofstock onChain — using USDC (USD Coin is a stable cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar.) through on-chain home financing. The transaction was accomplished by transferring a Home onChain NFT credential to an Ethereum address owned by home buyer Adam Slipakoff, according to Unusual Whales.

But don’t raise your eyebrows in surprise: holding the NFT gives you ownership of the actual house!

Roofstock explained that each rental property is owned by a limited liability company, whose data is encoded as an NFT (Home onChain) in the Ethereum blockchain. The Home onChain identifier can easily be transferred when the owner of the underlying property changes. The latter noted that this way of acquiring property was faster and easier than opening a traditional mortgage.

Half a million for a 3D-model house

In March of this year, a virtual property called Mars House sold for about $515,460. It’s a futuristic, minimalist dwelling designed by Toronto-based artist Krista Kim. Not only is it not on Mars, but it doesn’t even physically exist. It’s just a 3D project. The Mars House is the NFT’s first digital home.