Bitcoin Millionaires Are Buying Lamborghinis as the Ultimate Status

Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrency) millionaires are buying Lamborghinis as the extreme status symbol in their society.
People who made riches in bitcoin and ether have bought the Italian supercar for as little as $135, because they deposited in crypto before its value spiked.
At the same time, Lamborghini reported record sales in 2017.

Silicon Valley may be flush with cash, but its emperor often don't like to flaunt their wealth. The culture encourages tech's incidental billionaires to stay modest, spend on sneakers and hoodies instead of parties, and focus on the work more than the spoils.

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 society.

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 starts at $200,000.

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

"Buying the Lambo with bitcoin is proof it can be used for real transactions, buying really cool piece goods," Saddington told Yahoo Finance in 2017. "It's not only used by criminals."

The car was used, and Saddington paid the seller straight away in bitcoin. He paid the dealership a transaction fee of $7.95 and the sales tax in cash, according to Yahoo Finance and CNBC.

In 2015, realtor Piper Moretti, whose company The Crypto Realty Group specializes in helping people buy homes with crypto, saw one of her first crypto-clients purchase a Lambo with bitcoin.