Inman

Blockchains founder reluctantly lists Lake Tahoe homes for $48M

Image from Zillow

New markets require new approaches and tactics. Experts and industry leaders take the stage at Inman Connect New York in January to help navigate the market shift — and prepare for the next one. Meet the moment and join us. Register here.

The founder of a company that helps cryptocurrency and NFT owners establish their identities on the blockchain has listed two Lake Tahoe area residences for sale.

Blockchains Inc. founder Jeffrey Berns’ mansion in Glenbrook, Nevada, has been listed for a price just under $40 million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A smaller home next door owned by Berns is on the market for nearly $8 million.

The combined list price for the two properties is roughly the same as that of a third Lake Tahoe-area property that Jeffrey Berns and his wife, Mary Berns, purchased months ago. The new home is closer to their daughter’s school, Jeffrey told The Journal.

“It’s still, to this day, even though we’re living somewhere else, my favorite property,” he said in the article. “I didn’t want to sell it.”

Jeffrey told the newspaper that he loved the home and proposed holding onto the property even after moving into their new place. He hoped to move back in after the couple’s daughter left for college, he said.

“But my wife said she didn’t want to do that, so that’s why we’ve listed it,” he told The Journal.

Both residences were listed near the beginning of November, a month of tumult for cryptocurrency exchanges and financial markets. Jeffrey told the paper that the decision was unrelated to the collapse of crypto exchange platform FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, after the homes were listed, and sent ripples throughout the crypto community.

Built in 1997, the larger property sits on 1.6 acres and features a six-bedroom house, a guest house with two bedrooms, a separate office building and a lakeside area with docks and a private pier. The property features 11,492 square feet of interior living space.

When the Berns family initially bought the smaller home, which is next door to the main residence for sale, they had planned to use it as a place for guests to stay, Jeffrey told the paper. The property is just under a half-acre in size and sports a five-bedroom home of 3,000 square feet. The property features its own lakeside area.

Clifton Chase, of Chase International, is the listing agent for the two properties. 

Email Daniel Houston