Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian Hints at Bitcoin Home Purchases

 

Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian put out a social media hint that his company may soon allow the purchase of homes using Bitcoin or other crypto.

 Nejatian said, "We will," in response to a user's question on X regarding whether Opendoor would allow home purchases using cryptocurrency or Bitcoin. Just need to prioritize it.”  The comment, though brief, sparked speculation that the housing company might add crypto payments into its platform.

 A San Francisco-based company called Opendoor Technologies manages a digital marketplace for homebuyers. Through an online process, the company makes cash offers on homes, buys them, fixes or upgrades them, and puts them back on the market. That model may make it easier to integrate bitcoin: Opendoor could internally convert bitcoin into fiat currency, allowing a seller to conduct the transaction in the same manner as any other. Before such a move could be made, there would be tax and legal consequences. However, Opendoor is not the only company looking into a crypto-real estate frontier. Is the real estate sector experimenting with Bitcoin? Traditional businesses are experimenting with ways to incorporate bitcoin and other digital assets into corporate treasuries and property transactions. In California, Christie's International Real Estate opened a cryptocurrency division in July to make digital asset-based property listings and transactions easier. That arm includes Bel Air's "La Fin" mansion, which is one of the most expensive homes ever listed to accept cryptocurrency. It costs $118 million. Grupo Murano, a Mexican real estate company worth $1 billion, adopted a bitcoin-centric strategy to optimize its finances and protect against currency volatility. According to CEO Elas Sacal, the company intended to convert assets into bitcoin through sale-leasebacks and refinancing, anticipating that the cryptocurrency would perform better than conventional real estate appreciation. ByteFederal started a pilot program earlier this year in Florida that lets real estate buyers use bitcoin to buy properties, and sellers get paid in U.S. dollars. The service, now manual but soon to be automated, lets buyers pay deposits and closing costs in bitcoin, which ByteFederal converts to USD for escrow or title companies.

 At the same time, policy may be shifting.  When evaluating mortgage applications in 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider borrowers' crypto holdings, which were held on regulated exchanges, as assets.