NFT: Digital Mars house by artist Krista Kim sells for $500k

The digital housing market has officially commenced. 

A digital house created as an "NFT" or "non-fungible token" was sold for more than $500,000. For comparison, the median price of a physical U.S. home is $346,800, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The Mars house was created by the artist Krista Kim, who promotes the combination of art and technology known as the Techism movement. 

An NFT is a digital certificate of authenticity that confirms an item is real and one of a kind by recording the details on a blockchain digital ledger. 

The majority of the proceeds made from the 3D digital file will head to the Continuum Foundation to support a world tour of healing sound and light installations for mental health and healing, according to a tweet by Kim. The digital house, experienced as virtual reality, was on sale on SuperRare, a digital art marketplace. SuperRare listed the home as the world's first NFT digital house.

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"This new model of social capital investment through the purchase of NFT art is one that I hope will become a model for others to follow," Kim told USA TODAY.  "It could only exist in the NFT art market because the traditional art market intermediaries take 50% profits from an art sale and that limits the artist’s ability to create projects for the community."

NFTs have recently taken over the art collecting world. A digital artwork by the artist Beeple sold for $69.4 million by the auction house Christie's. 

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also sold a digital version of his first tweet – "just setting up my twttr" – on Monday for more than $2.9 million.

Follow Coral Murphy on Twitter @CoralMerfi