A cryptocurrency firm seems to be behind the Upper West Side’s most expensive townhouse sale.
An entity tied to Brendan Blumer, CEO of the crypto firm Block.one, which was behind a controversial $4 billion token issuance in 2017, paid $45 million for the Higher West Facet megamansion at 48-50 West 69th Avenue, The Actual Deal has realized.
The LLC, MI 8787, was additionally behind a 2024 buy of a $40 million waterfront spec mansion at 40 Palm Avenue in Miami Seaside, which set a report for Palm Island. Property data present {that a} 2025 tax refund following a $45 million sale that 12 months was issued to an deal with within the Cayman Islands tied to Block.one, Blumer’s firm.
In New York Metropolis, the identical LLC was the client of a 4,500-square-foot penthouse at 505 West nineteenth Avenue for $21 million in January, property data present. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment has a 3,400-square-foot rooftop and a deeded parking area.
Compass’ Maggie Wu, who labored on the buy-side of the deal, denied that Blumer was the client, and mentioned as an alternative the property was bought by an “investor” who plans to frivolously renovate and re-list the property later this fall.
In March 2025, an Italian newspaper reported Blumer was behind the most costly house sale within the nation’s historical past after he paid $172 million for a 28-room Sardinian villa.
The property spans 5.7 acres and has over 1,000 ft of water frontage on the Romazzino Bay and entry to 2 non-public seashores. Beforehand owned by Henry Ford II, the grandson of Henry Ford, and Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a Saudi oil minister who performed a big position in creating OPEC.
The townhouse buy set a neighborhood report, even at an almost 50 % worth reduce from its original $85 million asking price. The huge house initially hit the market in March 2024 and made waves with its astronomical asking worth for the neighborhood, earlier than being taken off the general public market a couple of months later.
The earlier record-holder for a townhouse sale on the Higher West Facet was at 248 Central Park West, which offered for $22 million in 2022.
French businessman Pierre Bastid and his spouse, jazz singer Malou Beauvoir, purchased the adjoining houses for a mixed $24.5 million in two separate offers that closed in 2011 and 2012. The couple tore down the earlier constructions and undertook an expansive building mission that was so bothersome to the neighbors that it elicited greater than 2,000 phrases in a 2019 article within the New York Instances in regards to the noise and particles.
The Instances estimated that building prices may run as excessive as $100 million on the property.
The 19,600-square-foot house has 5 bedrooms and 11 loos throughout eight tales which are linked by a limestone floating staircase, together with a commercial-grade elevator.
The 38-foot-wide parlor ground has 24-foot ceilings and opposing wood-burning fireplaces. The backyard stage has an indoor-outdoor wellness area, together with a 55-foot indoor lap pool. The complete-floor main suite spans over 2,000 sq. ft with a wood-burning fire and a south-facing terrace. The house additionally has a penthouse lounge with a wraparound terrace, moist bar and skylight.
Regardless of the intensive renovations, the house’s asking worth had at all times seemed to be a stretch for the neighborhood and the property, which nonetheless lacked distinctive options of comparable houses on the Higher East Facet, like a grand limestone or Georgian facade.
Compass’ Jim St. Andre, Trevor Stephens and Michael Maniawski had the itemizing. St. Andre didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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UWS double-wide sells for $45M, sets neighborhood townhouse record
UWS megamansion snags deal after asking $85M
Chilean casino mogul sells waterfront Palm Island spec mansion for record $40M
