Auction house Christie’s debuts crypto-only real estate team

Key Points

1. Christie’s now offers a team of crypto experts to assist buyers who prefer using cryptocurrency and avoiding banks.

2. A notable deal involved a $65 million Beverly Hills home purchased with Bitcoin, following Christie’s 2021 listing of a multimillion-dollar property that accepted Bitcoin.

3. Christie’s reported $5.7 billion in sales last year, a 6% decline from 2023, while Sotheby’s, which also embraces crypto and NFTs, reported $6 billion, down 23%.

4. Crypto can anonymize high-value real estate transactions, with Christie’s successfully protecting buyer anonymity in deals.

5. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to assess cryptocurrency’s role in mortgages without requiring conversion to USD.