A luxury $22.5 million Miami penthouse was sold in the largest crypto real estate purchase to date

• A luxury penthouse in Miami has just been bought for $22.5 million using cryptocurrency.
• It is considered to be the largest known cryptocurrency real estate purchase to date.
• The transaction was closed just weeks after the developer announced that it would accept digital assets as payment.
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A luxury penthouse in Miami was purchased for $22.5 million using cryptocurrency in what was considered to be the largest known cryptocurrency real estate purchase to date.

The 5,067-square-foot unit comprises the entire ninth floor and offers a 360-degree view of Miami's ocean, shoreline, and cityscape.

The transaction closed just weeks after the developer announced that it will be accepting digital assets as payment for its condominiums. Miami recently has billed itself as a growing hub for the cryptocurrency market.

Arte by Antonio Citterio, located in Florida's Surfside neighborhood, partnered with blockchain and securities trading platform SolidBlock.

SolidBlock will assist in the transaction and will provide legal and tax advice.

While this isn't the first property paid for in cryptocurrency, it is the biggest. The buyer remains anonymous and the company said it can't disclose the type of cryptocurrency used to purchase.

"We were overwhelmed by the amount of calls we received from qualified buyers," Alex Sapir, chairman of Sapir Corp LTD, whose subsidiary developed Arte, said in a statement. "Real-world crypto transactions haven't made their way fully into the mainstream yet, so it's clear that top holders around the world pay attention when new opportunities to transact open up."

The sale also comes just days after a blowout bitcoin conference in Miami headlined by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. The sold-out event was attended by over 12,000 people, with thousands more watching online.

The mayor of Miami has been striving to transform the city into the next Silicon Valley by embracing bitcoin and other technological innovators.

"If you would have told me in December that I was going to have a conversation with Elon Musk, eat lunch with Peter Thiel, become friends with Keith and meet [Coinbase CEO] Brian Armstrong pre-IPO and Fred and the Winklevoss twins, I would have told you, 'There's no way you can make this stuff up," Suarez told Insider.