In exciting news for Cryptocurrency fans, one of the famous and renowned car manufacturing brands, Ferrari, has announced that it is accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. The news has bolstered the case of crypto adoption worldwide, and the announcement from Ferrari shows the doubters of cryptocurrencies that it is here to stay. The option for paying for a Ferrari car is valid only in the US for now, but Ferrari has said that it may extend this option to European countries in the coming months based on the demand of its customers.
This isn’t the first time that the name of the Ferrari brand is associated with crypto. In 2021, the Ferrari racing division, Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team, which many will know as the most successful F1 team in the competition history, announced a partnership with Velas Blockchain company. The terms of the partnership also meant that Velas’ name would be displayed on the Ferrari F1 car. However, the partnership didn’t last long, and at the beginning of the year 2023, Ferrari decided to terminate its sponsorship agreement with Velas. The partnership, which was set at $30 million a year, was aimed at increasing fan engagement through NFTs and other shared initiatives, but it didn’t go smoothly because Ferrari was non-compliant with a clause that granted Velas to make NFT images of the car.
Ferrari has now taken a different approach, and giving its customers options to buy their cars with cryptocurrency shows the company’s commitment to accepting cryptocurrency. This isn’t the first time that a company has gone down a path where they will accept crypto as a form of payment. Tesla was the first company that make this move back in 2021 when they announced that they would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.
The company however later abandoned this move because they said that the rising carbon footprint due to bitcoin mining doesn’t sit well with the image of the company to go carbon neutral. Ferrari, however, believes that in the present days, crypto-mining companies are finding energy-efficient ways to mine crypto so they will not lose sleep over it.
Ferrari’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Enrico Galliera said the company is still moving forward towards its goals of attaining carbon neutrality by 2030. The luxury car brand has selected BitPay as its payment processor for the offering.
Customers will be allowed to use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP to purchase new cars that start at around $211,000. BitPay will make sure that the purchase won’t be affected by swings in the cryptocurrency price. BitPay will first convert the crypto into Fiat currency so that the Ferrari dealers won’t have to worry about the value of their sale going up or down. Ferrari said for users paying with crypto, there will be no change in prices, fees, or surcharges.
