Bitcoin millionaires buy Lamborghinis as a status symbol of crypto wealth
People have bought the Italian supercar for as little as US$135 because they invested in cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether, before values soared
So far, cryptocurrency millionaires have been the exception.
People who made their riches in bitcoin and ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, are buying Lamborghinis as the ultimate status symbol in their community.
The sexy Italian sports car has become an internet meme: when a new coin promises to make buyers a lot of money, someone might ask, “When's Lambo?” on social media. They want to know how long it will be until the holder can afford the supercar, which costs from US$200,000.
Peter Saddington, a 35-year-old coder living in Atlanta, in the US, paid 45 bitcoins to ride off in a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan (price tag: US$200,000) last autumn, at the height of the crypto craze. Those coins cost less than US$3 a piece when Saddington bought the digital currency in 2011.
“Buying the Lambo with bitcoin is proof it can be used for real transactions, buying really cool stuff,” Saddington told Yahoo Finance in 2017. “It’s not only used by criminals.”
The car was used, and Saddington paid the seller directly in bitcoin. He paid the dealership a transaction fee of US$7.95 and the sales tax in cash, according to Yahoo Finance and CNBC.
In 2015, estate agent Piper Moretti, whose company The Crypto Realty Group specialises in helping people buy homes with crypto, saw one of her first crypto clients buy a Lamborghini with bitcoin.
