New York property seller declined 50,000 Bitcoin in 2015 for $14M two-bed apartment and it's one of the most expensive mistakes in history
Published on Feb 18, 2026 at 4:29 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Feb 18, 2026 at 5:44 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
In what could be one of the biggest slip-ups ever in TV-land, one New Yorker was offered a huge amount of Bitcoin in exchange for their plush apartment – and they said no.
Back in 2015, a New York apartment sale briefly flirted with a still-niche internet currency.
On Million Dollar Listing New York, broker Ryan Serhant was shown receiving a buyer’s offer to pay in Bitcoin for a luxury two-bedroom apartment.
The seller wanted dollars, not crypto, and the offer got laughed off on the spot.
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He was offered 50,000 Bitcoin for a two-bed apartment in NYC
This isn’t the first time we have heard about serious Crypto regrets from people who didn’t understand how successful Bitcoin was going to be in this day and age, even celebs have Bitcoin rejection regrets.
Until recently, Bitcoin was seen as an unstable and unreliable form of currency that wasn’t really real.
The moment came during Season 4 of Million Dollar Listing New York, when famous realtor Ryan Serhant toured a two-bedroom NYC apartment listed at about $14 million.
The potential buyer proposed paying slightly under the asking price in the Bitcoin equivalent instead.
At the time, the offer was framed as roughly 50,000 BTC, valued in the same ballpark as the deal’s price tag, around $13 million to $14 million depending on the day’s exchange rate.
Serhant did not immediately dismiss it, but he questioned whether it was even legal and how it would work in practice, but he still presented the offer to the seller.
The response was reportedly swift and dismissive, with the seller unwilling to entertain the idea and frustrated that the offer was not above the asking price.
Ten years ago, Bitcoin was highly speculative, even more speculative than it is now, and the cryptocurrency would have most definitely been immediately liquidated, so the seller being appalled at the suggestion is not surprising.
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The crypto regret
Here is the brutal math when you look at how much it would be worth today.
With Bitcoin sitting at roughly $68,000 per coin, 50,000 BTC would now be worth around $3.4 billion.
That transforms what was once a $14 million real estate negotiation into a multibillion-dollar what-if.
Even accounting for volatility and the likelihood that many early holders sold long before Bitcoin’s biggest surges, the decision to turn down that payment has aged dramatically.
It is difficult not to wonder whether the seller of the two-bed apartment looks back on that moment differently today, especially every time Bitcoin climbs to the moon.
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As a Content Writer since January 2025, Daisy’s focus is on writing stories on topics spanning the entirety of the website. As well as writing about EVs, the history of cars, tech, and celebrities, Daisy is always the first to pitch the seed of an idea to the audience editor team, who collab with her to transform it into a fully informative and engaging story.
