Bitcoin millionaires buy Lamborghinis as a status symbol of crypto wealth

Silicon Valley may be flush with cash, but its monarchs oftendon』t like to flaunt their wealth. The culture encouragestechnology』s casual billionaires (or mere millionaires) to stayhumble, spend their money on sneakers and hoodies instead ofparties, and focus on the work more than the spoils.

So far, cryptocurrency millionaires have been the exception.

People who made their riches in bitcoin and ether, the secondlargest cryptocurrency by market value, are buyingLamborghinis as the ultimate status symbol in theircommunity.

The sexy Italian sports car has become an internet meme: when anew 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 willbe until the holder can afford the supercar, which costs fromUS$200,000.

Peter Saddington, a 35-year-old coder living in Atlanta, in theUS, paid 45 bitcoins to ride off in a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan(price tag: US$200,000) last autumn, at the height of thecrypto craze. Those coins cost less than US$3 a piece whenSaddington bought the digital currency in 2011.

「Buying the Lambo with bitcoin is proof it can be used for realtransactions, buying really cool stuff,」 Saddington told YahooFinance in 2017. 「It』s not only used by criminals.」

The car was used, and Saddington paid the seller directly inbitcoin. He paid the dealership a transaction fee of US$7.95 andthe sales tax in cash, according to Yahoo Finance andCNBC.

Peter Saddington, pictured beside an AudiR8, who bought a Lamborghini with the riches he made in bitcoin.Photo: YouTube/BiteSizeBitcoin

In 2015, estate agent Piper Moretti, whose company The CryptoRealty Group specialises in helping people buy homes withcrypto, saw one of her first crypto clients buy a Lamborghini withbitcoin.

A family from America's East Coast fell in love with a US$3.2million home on Manhattan Beach. Moretti』s client, who asked not tbe named, wanted to pay in bitcoin. But the seller』s agent wasagainst it. Moretti said they had to find a way to show they werenot trying to cheat the seller.

Around that time, the price of bitcoin spiked, and Moretti'sclient decided to spend some of the extra money on a Lamborghinifrom an Orange County car dealership that accepts bitcoin aspayment.

Moretti told her client to 「send me everything you have onthis」, including all the receipts and documents from thetransaction, which she then provided to the seller』s agent.

「The Lambo actually helped us get the house," Moretti toldBusiness Insider.

Cryptocurrency is 「not just internet-nerd money」, she added.「You can actually buy things.」

Lamborghini sales are 『on fire』

Still, buying a Lamborghini may be 「the single acceptableway to spend money」 in the cryptocurrency community, according to arecent article in The New York Times.

「If all that we accomplish is lambo memes and immature punsabout 『sharting』, then I WILL leave,」 Buterin said in a Twitterrant in December.

An illustration of Buterin, dressed as a religious icon andholding a red Lamborghini Aventador between his outstretched palms,went viral on Reddit in 2017 and has been widely sharedsince.

We don』t know how many crypto millionaires have been mintedor how many bought the car. But a recent article on the Quartz newswebsite points out that as the price of ether rises, so doLamborghini sales.

The luxury carmaker delivered a record 3,815 vehicles tocustomers in 2017. It was the seventh consecutive year of salesgrowth, according to Lamborghini.

A general manager at Lamborghini Newport Beach in Costa Mesa,California, told  CNBC that the dealership had 「over 10transactions」 involving cryptocurrency in December, when bitcoinreached US$19,000 per coin. That is up from about two transactionsa month between 2013 and 2016. 

Crypto millionaires are not necessarily responsible for the risein Lamborghini sales. A relatively small number of people haveinvested in cryptocurrencies, and many fewer bought in before theprice of bitcoin and ether spiked in 2017 – making some holdersenough money to buy a sports car.

Fans of crypto and Lamborghini can calculate when their cryptoinvestment will create enough gains for them to buy the supercar ona parody website called When-Lambo.com.

A disclaimer on the website says: 「The results of thecalculation」 which is based on the coin』s value over the last sevendays, 「are completely fictional.」