Perhaps Khaled’s “Bitcoin Lamborghini” title may not be his last as he may trend a new term if he buys another supercar amidst BTC recent surge.
Lamborghini, a performance sports car, is a ‘holy grail’ for some cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Bitcoin‘s 2017 meteoric rise made early adopters a fortune, with some taking their profits-and celebrating- to buy ultra-expensive supercars, specifically Lamborghinis. Their $200k+ purchases cemented their status as “bitcoin legends” and set in motion a new breed of Lamborghini owners that purchased their supercars with cryptocurrency. But who really bought the first Bitcoin Lambo?
Lamborghini’s cost anywhere between $200,000 to $2,200,000 depending on the model. In 2017, when bitcoin’s price rise kicked off a global crypto frenzy, the topic of Lamborghinis had become a hot conversation. Internet forums like Reddit and Bitcointalk coined the term “When Lambo?”- referring to the threshold of when hodlers were able to purchase the sports car. At The 2017 North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, hosted by Moe Levin, ten’s of Lamborghini’s were lined up at the venue’s entrance, showcasing the wealth of early adopters and awning spectators in the process. Since then, Lamborghinis purchased with bitcoin have become the epitome of showcasing crypto influence.
To date only a few crypto millionaires are known to have publicly spent their Bitcoin on Lamborghinis, the Italian automobile has become the outward symbol for crypto culture. “When Lambo?” has since become the shorthand for crypto success. As the first few crypto-lambo buyers boldly shaped the Bitcoin Lamborghini folktale, gaining notoriety as “bitcoin legends” within the blockchain community, many ask this fundamental question, who was the first?
In 2014, a 4chan user spent 216 BTC and bought a Lamborghini Gallardo for $210,000 at Lamborghini Newport Beach using a third-party service that verifies bitcoin. The legend goes that the user leaked the buy on Reddit, and news of the purchase went viral. The dealership that sold the car proclaimed it was the first exotic car dealer to accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
In 2015, Peter Saddington cashed in 45 Bitcoins for a $200,000 white Lamborghini Huracan. It’s clear that Automobili Lamborghini started to produce the Huracan model in 2015 and thus would eliminate him as the first “Bitcoin Lamborghini.”
But a recent finding shows that in January of 2014 another crypto trader bought a white Lamborghini Gallardo, edging both Saddington and the 4chan user to be the first “Bitcoin Lamborghini.” Khaled Mazeedi, known on Instagram as @ten, purchased his Lamborghini from Sanam Cars in Dubai by handing over a Trezor wallet to buy the car in January 2014.
“For me, it sends a powerful message, a new trend is being realized, where digital currencies can transition into the real world, turning dreams into reality,” Mazeedi told International Business Times.
Mazeedi began buying up bitcoin in 2013, when a single bitcoin cost just $280. He claims to have bought over a thousand. This November, Bitcoin rose to $16,500 each. Calculating the return on his original $280 purchase price, that is a gain of 5,900% on his initial investment.
Since Mazeedi’s Lamborghini purchase with Bitcoin in 2014, Lamborghini fever has been rapidly spreading throughout the crypto-community. Enthusiasts even follow a special Lamborghini price ticker that pairs the brands top of the line model, the Lamborghini Aventador, with the price of BTC, to mark when ‘hodlers’ have enough satoshis to trade in for the supercar. According to the Lamborghini/BTC price ticker ( Lambo2btc ), a single BTC equals about 0.03985802 of one whole Lamborghini Aventador.
For all we know, Mazeedi is in fact the first Bitcoin Lamborghini owner, and now for the upper echelon of crypto investors, the ‘holy grail’ is as attainable as it’s ever been. Bitcoin is bullishly on track to break its previous all-time high in 2017, enabling a new round of bitcoin supercar owners. Perhaps Khaled’s “Bitcoin Lamborghini” title may not be his last as he may trend a new term if he buys another supercar amidst BTC recent surge. “Bitcoin Ferrari”?
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