Virtual Property Sells for $1.5M in Ether, Smashing NFT Record

A piece of virtual land on blockchain marketplace and gaming platform Axie Infinity has just sold for a record-breaking sum in cryptocurrency.

At around 23:00 UTC on Monday, one of the platform’s newest community members, “Flying Falcon,” purchased the digital estate of nine adjacent Genesis blocks for 888.25 ether, roughly $1.5 million at the time.

The transaction marks the largest non-fungible token (NFT) transaction of all time, as tracked on-chain by crypto collectibles data site NonFungible. Formerly, the “Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2020 1A” NFT from F1 Delta Time held the record at $224,111 in ETH, the site told CoinDesk.

“As Genesis land plots are the rarest and best-positioned plots in Axie Infinity they were a natural fit for my thesis,” Flying Falcon told CoinDesk via email. “What we’re witnessing is a historic moment; the rise of digital nations with their own system of clearly delineated, irrevocable property rights.”

While the “epic 9” plot is by far the NFT sector’s largest sale to date, there are roughly three other plots going for much higher: from 100 to 10,000 ETH.

Genesis NFTs are supply-capped virtual plots featuring a “unique aesthetic” and prime positioning within the Axie platform.

“As the largest digital land sale ever, this marks a significant development in the short history of NFTs,” the seller, Danny (who preferred not to provide a surname), told CoinDesk. “Virtual economies will be the new frontier for an increasingly digital world.”

The virtual land assets will be used for an upcoming game mode known as Axie Land, aka Project K.

Danny recently purchased a rare Hashmasks digital artwork for 420 ETH (around $650,000 at the time of purchase, as CoinDesk reported last week.