Harnish Properties Who, who knew owls were so popular? The art world’s latest craze is Moonbirds , a collection of 10,000 owl avatars that are also non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Ethereum-based project launched earlier this year and almost instantly sold out, generating revenues of $445 million in a matter of days and later swooping up $50 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital behemoth Andreessen Horowitz.
Behind Moonbirds is Kevin Rose , who isn’t quite a household name but has been a notable tech entrepreneur for nearly two decades. The California native, 45, first came to prominence in the mid-aughts thanks to his popular Digg website. The success of that now-defunct site and other early internet endeavors led Rose’s transformation into a venture capitalist , and he became a very early investor in a number of major tech companies that are now worth billions — Twitter, Zynga and Square among them.
For most of the last decade, Rose has lived primarily in Portland, Ore., where in 2020 he completed construction on a very glassy custom home. But with the burgeoning success of Moonbirds and his Proof web3 umbrella company, it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s looking toward Los Angeles to grow what he describes as a “big, massive, brand new kind of media company.”
Records show Rose has paid $16.5 million for an unfinished estate in prime Brentwood Park, one of L.A.’s most expensive neighborhoods. Set behind gates on a half-acre lot, the long and very L-shaped house is still midway through construction, meaning Rose likely won’t be moving in for at least another year. Renderings additionally reveal the contemporary house will offer walls of glass overlooking grassy lawns, plus six bedrooms and 8.5 baths in 7,600 square feet of living space.
Rose is guaranteed to love that new Brentwood mansion, because his just-sold Portland home looks almost exactly the same. Custom built to his specifications and located in the unincorporated Dunthorpe neighborhood, the sleek residence offers soaring ceilings, walls of glass, five bedroom suites and open-concept living areas throughout.
Other amenities within the nearly 7,000-square-foot Oregon house (below) are not limited to a “secret” wet bar, gym with sauna, wine cellar, home theater, three-car garage with EV chargers and top-of-the-line security system. No wonder the house hit the market this July and sold in just one month for $7.9 million, nearly the full $8 million asking price.
