Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Litecoin. These terms have been in the news alot lately, due to their meteoric rise the last few months, and particularly the last few weeks. What are they and how do they work in home sales?

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that is about 10 years old. There are several thousand individual types of crypto, with Bitcoin being by far the largest and most well known. The current value (Jan 8th) of 1 Bitcoin is $40,000, having risen from $30,000 just a week ago. There are about 18 million Bitcoin in circulation, with the total supply limited to 21 million. It has been derided as having no real value for most of its existence by large institutions and banks, until mid to late 2020 when Square and Paypal invested in it, and are making it available to their customers. Crypto payments are widely considered secure and trackable. I have since seen Kmart rewards in Bitcoin, football players asking for payment in Bitcoin, and many large investors buying it up.

Ethereum is the name of a digital platform of which Ether coin is traded on, among other things. Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are other types of cryptocurrency that Paypal is recognizing.

So where can you get these babies? Besides going on Square and Paypal to acquire, the 4 above are offered thru Exchanges like CoinBase, or you can invest in them thru Grayscale or Bitwise on the stock exchange, buying any amount of shares you wish individually (Grayscale) or in a group. Once you get past the top few types of crypto, you need to go thru an Exchange to buy. Be careful, as the values of this digital currency are very volatile, and most of the smaller ones have very little to no value at all.

Now when it comes time to close on your home purchase, Bitcoin will likely not be an acceptable form of payment anytime soon. I am not aware of a title company in St Louis that is handling it yet. The easiest way to do it is to simply exchange your Bitcoin for cash on an Exchange, and wire US Dollars to the title company. Hopefully the Bitcoin value does not drop too much before closing, as it will vary from day to day, even hour to hour. Caution - in 2017 it rocketed up many times over, and in 2018 it dropped just as fast. The other way would be to agree in the sale contract that the purchase price would be paid in Bitcoin, or whatever form of digital currency you could agree on, and pay that amount directly to the seller's account at closing. And I would strongly encourage you to have an attorney oversee the contract language and closing process to protect your interests, as this could be used fairly easily to scam someone (Where is my Bitcoin? It's "in the mail"). And beware that the value of Bitcoin from contract acceptance to closing can vary up or down. Happy Mining (Bitcoin term)!