In early October, the general sales manager at Ashburn, Virginia-based luxury car dealership Exclusive Automotive Group was introduced to a potential buyer who had founded his own crypto company and then sold it.
The Maryland buyer, who was in his thirties, now wanted to buy a Koenigsegg hypercar from EAG, which had yet to sell a single one despite becoming the first dealership in the region to offer the vehicles in 2020. One of the most expensive and fastest car brands in the world, the most affordable of these Swedish cars goes for $1.9 million, while the priciest model retails for well over $3 million — and that's before customization.
“He reached out to me and said, ‘I’d like to purchase one of these bad boys — but only if you’re willing to accept crypto,’” EAG's Mehdi Soltanian recalls of when he met the buyer last month. “I said, ‘What a clever idea.’”
The client bought two Koenigseggs.
The dealership, which recently relocated from Tysons to Ashburn, signed with BitPay, a cryptocurrency payment provider through which EAG is now able to accept more than a dozen coins, from bitcoin to Ethereum, dogecoin and five different types of stablecoins. And with that, the dealership — which also sells Aston Martin, Bentley, luxury electric car brand Karma Automotive and other exotic cars that customers trade in — began accepting payments via cryptocurrency.
Atlanta-based BitPay, founded in 2011 by Georgia Tech graduates, is one of the largest and oldest blockchain payment providers. It has processed more than $5 billion in transactions and has more than $70 million in investments.
Ultimately, the client paid a deposit in USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, for a Koenigsegg Gemera and Jesko, the dealership said. Stablecoins are meant to retain a fairly stable price, although the Federal Reserve expressed doubts about the sub-category’s strength earlier this year. The MSRP value of the two cars combined is over $6 million, according to Soltanian, who also said the vehicles can double in value when they come off the lot due to demand outstripping supply.
While public conception of cryptocurrency is down following the implosion of FTX and a monthslong “crypto winter” which has seen prices for some cryptocurrencies plummet and remain low, Soltanian said from his firm’s view, there’s no risk to EAG in accepting cryptocurrency.
“It’s just like any purchase,” the general sales manager said.
EAG might accept crypto, but it's not holding onto it. As soon as the crypto payment is made it gets converted to U.S. dollars and is deposited in EAG’s bank account.
If the dealership were to hold the crypto, “it would be a completely different business model that we’re not in,” Soltanian added, acknowledging that doing so would expose the company to unwanted risk. Now that the dealership has the capacity, Soltanian said it will continue accepting the payment method.
The sale of the Gemera and the Jesko occurred at the end of October. Days later, EAG sold a third Koenigsegg of an undisclosed model to a different buyer who paid his deposit via traditional wire transfer, the dealership said.
Apart from being incredibly expensive and ridiculously fast, Koenigsegg cars are heavily customized and take one to two years to be delivered after the order is received. The Koenigsegg Regera features 1,500 horsepower and a top speed of 250 mph via a 5.0 liter V8 engine; the Gemera reaches 186 mph behind 1,677 horsepower; the Jesko reaches 278 mph behind 1,280 horsepower (or 1,600 horsepower using E85 fuel); and the recently announced CC850, of which the company will only produce 70, produces 1,385 horsepower.
