Bitcoins is gaining popularity with each passing day. First, it was Richard Branson, who announced that Virgin Galactic is accepting Bitcoins for space flight, then it was the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, which said it is accepting the digital currency as tuition fees and now a Tesla dealer has sold an electric Tesla Model S priced over $100k to an anonymous buyer who used Bitcoins for the transaction.
A Florida-based customer has bought a Tesla Model S from a Lamborghini dealership in Newport Beach, California. The dealer said that it was the first instance of it accepting payment for a car using Bitcoins.
"That's right, an electronic currency was used to purchased a fully electric vehicle," the dealer of the car noted on its website. "Lamborghini Newport Beach is proud to announce that we are fully capable of accepting Bitcoin as payment for vehicles. We are excited to be opening the door to this new currency."
The buyer, who wants to remain anonymous, bought the top-of-the-line Tesla Model S for $103,000, which was equivalent to 91.4 Bitcoins on Tuesday, December 3, the day when the car was sold.
The car dealer says that he received a call from a customer on Monday, December 2, who asked if he can use Bitcoins to pay for a Tesla Model S. The customer also mentioned to the car dealer that he had been turned down by other car dealers who did not accept payment via Bitcoins.
"We had heard about it before, but we weren't extremely familiar, so we basically did our homework and looked for ways for us to convert it into dollars," said Cedric Davy, marketing director of the car dealership.
The seller checked out any legal issues arising from the high-value transaction and worked out the deal with Bitcoin payment processor BitPay to handle the transaction.
The buyer had an advantage when he purchased the car. Bitcoin is known for its extensive price swings, and the digital currency dropped on Friday, November 29, favoring the buyer.
The car dealer reports that after news spread that they accepted Bitcoins as a payment method they received about 10 more calls from customers who wanted to buy a car and pay for the same using digital money.
Many Teslas cars are sold online directly to customers. Moreover, Tesla-owned and Tesla-run stores conduct a transaction online.
Tesla declined to comment whether it has plans to accept Bitcoin payments in the near term.
