SuperRare
- A digital house sold for over $500,000 to a Toronto buyer.
- The house can be uploaded into the buyer's metaverse or even recreated in the physical world.
- NFT real estate could be set to boom, according to the head of real estate group Republic.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A digital home sold for over $500,000 online in March.
The house was sold as a non-fungible token, or NFT, on the SuperRare marketplace. In exchange for about $512,712 worth of ether, the Toronto buyer received 3D files and clips of the NFT piece, called "Mars House," set to music.
The files can be uploaded to the buyer's metaverse and used as a home for their avatar. A metaverse is a virtual world similar to "SimCity" or "Minecraft." In the metaverse, users can buy digital assets including homes and clothes while living and interacting with other users via an avatar in the virtual world. One of the most popular NFT metaverses is Decentraland, a community-owned site where users can build their own reality.
The NFT is the first blockchain-based digital house in the world, according to SuperRare. The artist Krista Kim worked with Jeff Schroeder from the band Smashing Pumpkins to generate the music for the clip.
The house, which is set on Mars, appears to be made up almost entirely of glass.
from on Vimeo.
The artist said she was inspired during quarantine to build the digital house.
"Kim ventured into NFTs while exploring meditative design during quarantine; her hope was to use the influx of digital life as an opportunity to promote wellbeing," the press release said. "Comprised entirely of light, the visual effects of her crypto-home are meant to omit a zen, healing atmosphere."
Though the house currently only exists on the blockchain, it can be recreated in real life by glass furniture-makers in Italy or via LED screens, according to the press release.
"Everyone should install an LED wall in their house for NFT art," Kim said in the release. "This is the future, and Mars House demonstrates the beauty of that possibility."
The over $500,000 sale is just one of many NFT drops that have captured the spotlight in recent months. Earlier in March, digital artist Beeple sold a crypto art piece for nearly $70 million. NFT sales have encompassed anything from 3D images and videos to memes and tweets.
In March, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for $2.9 million.
Janine Yorio, the head of the real-estate group Republic, said NFT real estate could be the future of home-buying.
"I predict that the best parcels of virtual real estate will appreciate faster than real-world real estate," Yorio said in a post on CoinDesk, showing how NFTs have already gathered value in recent months.
In February, an NFT buyer was able to flip a crypto art piece for $6.6 million, or nearly 1,000% its initial purchase price. Over the past 30 days, NFT sales have generated over $1 billion, according to CryptoSlam.
Furthermore, virtual real-estate sites like Decentraland have continued to grow in recent months. The site's internal currency, "MANA," has a $225 million market value. MANA prices have risen over 321% in the past year, according to Yorio.