Main residence at 241 Bedford Rd in Greenwich, CT
Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles
The Gold Coast of Connecticut soon might become the Crypto Coast if this real estate listing is any indication.
The owner of a Greenwich estate is willing to accept cryptocurrency as payment for its $6.5 million asking price, in what an agent says is the first such listing of its kind in the wealthy town.
The unidentified owner’s background explains the unusual offer, and their comfort level in taking bitcoin or Ethereum crypto for the 4.3-acre farmhouse compound on Bedford Road, which dates to the early 1800s.
“It’s not like a gimmick,” the property’s listing agent, Kevin Sneddon of Compass told CNBC in an interview.
“Not only does my client hold a lot of cryptocurrency,” Sneddon said, “she actively trades a fair amount of it on a daily basis.”
Dining room
Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles
The prices of bitcoin and Ethereum are highly volatile and have declined by more than 19% apiece since the beginning of 2022.
If a buyer of the property uses cryptocurrency to pay for the estate as opposed to cash — which remains an option for payment — the seller would be accepting a risk of further significant decline in the price if she did not immediately sell off the crypto for cash.
In recognition of that risk, a number of prior real-estate listings that have entailed cryptocurrency have required the buyer to convert the crypto to cash before the sale closes.
But the listing for this property makes crystal clear, in all-capital-letters type at the end of the description of the estate: “SELLER WILL ACCEPT CRYPTOCURRENCY.”
Main residence on the left with one bedroom guest-cottage in the foreground.
Anthony Acocella / Modern Angles
Sneddon said the seller intends to hold the payment in cryptocurrency.
“She’s not going to turn it over and convert it to anything else,” Sneddon said. “She’s going to add it to her crypto portfolio.”
Sneddon is counting on state-of-the-art amenities on the property to…
