• A Florida homeowner is selling her house and minting the deed as an NFT, the Tampa Bay Times found.
• Bidding will begin at $650,000 on February 10, according to real-estate tech firm Propy.
• The sale should “stimulate conversation” about blockchain technology and NFTs, the homeowner said.

A Florida homeowner is auctioning her five-bedroom house near Tampa as an NFT — and she’s taking cryptocurrency only. 

Bidding for the Gulfport, Florida, home that features an iron dinner bell in the front will start February 10 at $650,000. The Tampa Bay Times, which first reported the story, said homeowner Leslie Alessandra chose to auction the Spanish-inspired house as an NFT to display the growing possibilities of blockchain technology.

“Is this just hype or is there a real world application?” She said to the Times. The auction, she added, should be used to “stimulate conversation” about NFTs, which are generally digital pieces of art minted on the blockchain. In this case, the NFT serves as a digital deed to the home. This auction comes with another sweetener: an NFT mural by artist Derek Donnelly, also known as Saint Paint.

According to Propy, the real-estate tech firm minting her property as an NFT, Alessandra invests in real estate and cryptocurrencies and “believes in the benefits of blockchain technology for both industry efficiency and humanitarian causes.” Last year, Propy minted the sale of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s Kyiv, Ukraine, apartment as an NFT in a move that it said showcased “the power of blockchain technology to innovate the real estate industry.”

NFTs had a definitive year in 2021, with sales of the digital collectibles soaring to about $41 billion. That is approaching sales volumes in the traditional art market, according to one estimate.

Though the collectibles have mostly been digital, some have been experimenting with selling physical items with ownership minted on the blockchain. Midwest Tungsten, for example, sold the rights to touch a 2,000-pound tungsten cube once a year as an NFT, and Rapper Ja Rule sold a physical painting from the infamous Fyre Festival as a crypto collectible. 

Alessandra did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Facebook. She told the Times, however, this wouldn’t be the last time she auctions a house as an NFT. 

This content was originally published here.