The way we buy cars is evolving, with online sales threatening the traditional bricks-and-mortar dealership model and fixed prices ending the days of negotiating.
Ferrari isn’t immune, despite its incredibly strong brand. It has announced it’ll soon allow its European customers to pay with cryptocurrency rather than cash or bank loans.
It follows the decision to start accepting Bitcoin payments in the US last year. The rollout has seemingly been a success, leading to its expansion into Europe by the end of this month.
Cryptocurrency has resulted in an entirely different demographic of people becoming investors, bringing Ferrari a new potential base of well-heeled buyers who may not have been able to afford a vehicle using traditional financial means.
A spokesperson for Ferrari Australia said there was no announcement as to whether this payment method would be rolled out locally, but the Italian marque said it “will extend cryptocurrency transactions to other countries in the international Ferrari dealer network where cryptocurrencies are legally accepted” by the end of 2024.
“Ferrari makes use of the collaboration of various companies active in the world of cryptocurrency payments, which ensure the security of transactions,” the carmaker said in a media statement.
“Thanks to the solutions identified, dealers will be facilitated in accepting payments as they will not need to manage cryptocurrencies, as the latter will be immediately converted into traditional currency.
“The providers’ solutions will also allow you to verify the source of funds and protect transactions from price fluctuations related to exchange rates.”
In the US, Ferrari uses BitPay as its cryptocurrency payment processor, which converts the online currency to traditional money on behalf of the brand.
Bitcoin is the most common form of cryptocurrency, also being the most valuable.
At the time of writing one Bitcoin is worth A$99,568, having recovered from its most recent low of about A$24,000 in early 2023, and dropping from an all-time high of A$110,000 in March this year.
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