Have crypto to spare? Malta’s Valletta Palazzo is up for sale

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“Blockchain Island” Malta continues to steal the headlines for innovative projects in the fintech space, with the most recent offering being a huge palazzo in the heart of Valletta now up for grabs with a €3 million price tag. The snag, however, is that the property can only be purchased with cryptocurrency.

At the time of writing, the Valletta Palazzo is being offered for 550BTC, which would translate into a little over the $3.5 million mark at current market prices.

The 860 square-meter historic building located in the Valletta capital of the Mediterranean island can be transformed into a hotel or even office space. Since it can only be purchased in crypto, the palazzo’s buyer can claim the title of making the first cryptocurrency property purchase on the so-called “Blockchain Island.”

Maltese Mansion goes on sale for BTC in advance of Malta conference.https://t.co/8uzPtHTRfu

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) September 4, 2018

Even the ubiquitous John McAfee, who has also confirmed his participation at the Malta Blockchain Summit in November, has tweeted about the palazzo sale.

Ian Fitzpatrick, owner of the palazzo, told Coin Rivet that there are a number of high net worth individuals who are looking at Malta as a place to invest their crypto wealth, noting that the Valletta Palazzo could be the first of many coming on the market in cryptocurrency.

“The palazzo on sale, which has more than four centuries of history, can be developed into a boutique hotel or even into a cool housing project for employees,” Fitzpatrick told the news outlet.

The sale is part of an initiative called CryptoHomes.io. On its website, the group said its goal is to make more real estate listings available through cryptocurrency. CryptoHomes has partnered with multi-currency wallet Cubits and blockchain-based KYC solution KnowMeNow for the project.

Dennis Avorin, one of CryptoHomes’ initiators, told the news outlet: “We simply want to promote the use of crypto as a vehicle for solid investments and Malta is a great start with incredibly strong real estate market that we have seen in the past few years.”