Ferrari’s director of marketing and commerce, Enrico Galliera, revealed that the vast majority of automakers are avoiding cryptocurrencies. This is due to concerns that the volatility of bitcoin and other cryptoassets prevents them from being used for commerce. Uncertainty in the regulation of the crypto industry and the high energy consumption of bitcoin mining have also prevented its widespread adoption as a means of payment. However, Ferrari has decided to accept cryptocurrencies for payment due to the growing demands of customers who have invested in cryptoassets.
“Many of our customers are young investors who have made their fortunes in cryptocurrencies. Other customers are traditional investors, but they too want to diversify their portfolios with cryptocurrencies,” Galliera said.
Ferrari has partnered with one of the largest cryptocurrency payment operators, BitPay, which supports payments in bitcoin, ether and USDC Stablecoins. Galliera assured that car prices will not change and buyers will not be charged commissions and additional fees if they pay with cryptocurrencies. BitPay will immediately convert the crypto assets into dollars and euros on behalf of Ferrari dealers, and this will protect the parties from price fluctuations.
In the first half of 2023, Ferrari delivered more than 1,800 cars to the North American continent. In 2022, the Italian company sold 13,200 cars at prices ranging from 200,000 euros ($211,000) to 2 million euros ($2.1 million). Galliera did not specify how many cars the company is going to sell for cryptocurrencies, but it will make this payment option available to residents of Europe as well, due to the adoption of the law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the European Union (MiCA).
Recall that earlier this year Ferrari terminated its partnership with Velas Blockchain, a cryptocurrency sponsor of the Formula 1 team, resulting in the company losing $55 million.