A Mysterious Buyer Uses Cryptocurrency To Buy 'The Enigma', The Huge Black Diamond

A rock is a rock, unless it's precious. And the most precious of them all, is diamond.

First and foremost, diamonds are rare in nature. The process of diamond formation deep within the Earth's mantle takes billions of years, and only a small fraction of diamonds actually reach the Earth's surface. Second, the society considers the stones as a symbol for love, beauty, wealth and more.

Because of this, diamonds are highly-sought after.

Most frequently, diamonds and cut and faceted and polished to maximize the diamond's brilliance and sparkle. The clearer the diamonds, and the less inclusions they have, the more they're faceted and the better they're polished, the more expensive the diamonds.

But still, in its bare form, diamonds are still expensive, and a particular diamond, is extremely pricey.

The diamond in question, is a carbonado, or a black diamond.

While black diamonds are less sought-after due to its near-opaque color and their too many inclusions, they're still rare.

And this time, a 555.55 carat black diamond, believed to be the largest cut diamond in the world, according to a post by The Guinness World Records, has been sold for £3.16 million at the auction house Sotheby's.

Named 'The Enigma', the black diamond is so heavy that the gem weighs about the same as a banana.

The diamond switched hand after nearly two decades being owned by another person, with little to no history about its origin.

But what is known, the shape of the diamond is inspired by the Middle Eastern palm symbol of the Hamsa, a sign of protection, which means five in Arabic.

This is the reason why the five theme runs throughout the stone, according to the auctioneer.

In addition to its 555.55 carats, the gem also contains exactly 55 facets.

Carbonados are usually found in pea-sized chunks, or in larger porous aggregates consisting of many tiny black crystals.

The most characteristic carbonados are mined in the Central African Republic and in Brazil, in neither place associated with kimberlite, the source of typical gem diamonds.

And because carbonados contain osbornite, a naturally occurring variety of titanium nitride found only in meteors, it's widely believed that many carbonados originate from space.

Sotheby's described The Enigma as "one of the rarest, billion-year-old cosmic wonders known to humankind."

As for Earth-made black diamonds, they're usually around 2.6 to 3.2 billion years old - a time before dinosaurs existed. The Earth itself is around 4.65 billion years old, so not much older than black diamonds. But sometimes, carbonados are also found in younger sedimentary rocks, which make some of them a lot younger.

Just like other diamonds, carbonados are rare, and The Enigma pricey price is due to its massive size.

While The Enigma is certainly huge, it's far from the largest carbonado ever found.

The title is held by The Sergio, considered the largest carbonado and the largest rough diamond ever found, weighing at an astonishing 3,167 carats (633.4 grams). It was found above ground in Lençóis in Brazil in 1895 by Sérgio Borges de Carvalho.

The mysterious buyer who bought The Enigma was initially anonymous, and acquired the gem using cryptocurrency.

This is mentioned by Sotheby's, that said "the buyer has opted to use cryptocurrency for the purchase."

However, shortly after auction, a man named Richard Heart took to social media to claim that he was the buyer of The Enigma.

Heart, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, told his Twitter followers that "as soon as the payment's gone through and possession's been taken" the gem would be renamed the "HEX.com diamond", in reference to the blockchain platform he founded.

It's worth noting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Heart with fraud, claiming that he illegally raised more than $1 billion in unregistered cryptocurrency to finance luxury goods purchases, including The Enigma.

It's also worth noting that the gem was sold in London, after being exhibited in Dubai and Los Angeles.