Lake Tahoe home sells for $1.6 million — paid in BTC

The Wall Street Journal reports today that a property in Lake Tahoe sold for 2,739 BTC, or roughly $1.6 million. The 1.4 acre property on the California side of the lake is located in the private luxury resort of Martis Camp, and appears to be the single biggest bitcoin-backed property sale to date. The price is considered within the market standard for the size and location of the property.

The buyer of the property is unknown, having purchased the land through a trust, but Martis Camp spokesman Brian Hull told the WSJ that the buyer has plans to build a home on the site. According to Hull, it was the buyer who initially proposed the bitcoin-backed purchase. “When we originally heard the idea of bitcoin, everybody had a little pause,” Hull told the WSJ. “We weren’t educated at how the transaction would go.”

The transaction was handled through Atlanta-based bitcoin payment processor BitPay. BitPay representatives told the WSJ that this was the largest property transaction they’ve processed thus far, although by no means the largest purchase. A villa in Bali appear to hold the previous record for a bitcoin-related property purchase, selling for $500,000 in BTC earlier this year. The WSJ also noted several available properties seeking bitcoin-friendly buyers, including a $7.85 million, 25,000 square-foot home in Las Vegas.