This week, someone in Australia spent around $500,000 on a car, which in itself is a completely insane thing to process. But the icing on the proverbial cake is that the Subaru’s new owner used bitcoin. Wild.
To be clear, it was a 1994 Subaru Prodrive 555 Group A World Rally Championship Car.
This isn’t your standard Subie. The WRC car was thought to be a needle in a haystack but is now a golden treasure. Why? Because it was driven by the late Colin McRae (who was the youngest person to win the WRC Drivers’ title) AND Carlos Sainz (who also has an epic car racing world CV).
The car was sold at Lloyds Actions, which, if you aren’t familiar, is one of Australia’s most well-known auction houses.
Before going under the hammer, Lloyds gave the Subie an estimated value of $15,000-$20,000. But it sold for way, way more. The new owner spent half a million dollars on the thing.
The Subaru was bought using bitcoin. But it is only one of many purchases that have been made through Lloyds Auctions using crypto.
Lloyds announced earlier this year it was allowing bidders to use the digital coin in lieu of physical cash.
At the time of announcing its crypto foray, one shopper had already dropped a small fortune ($100,000) in cryptocurrency on a caravan.
Lloyds this week also held an auction featuring 13 of the stunt cars from Mad Max: Fury Road.
However, cars and caravans are not the only asset being bought with cryptocurrency, you can buy anything from art to diamonds to real estate. And you can now purchase NFT digital cars.
Lloyds Auctions chief operating officer Lee Hames said the auction house previously sold a Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III for a record-breaking $1.3 million under the hammer.
They also sold a digital NFT version of the same Ford which went for $51,000.
In early June, the auction house decided blockchain was the best way to prove ownership of a set of negatives capturing moments in Australia’s history, announcing it was minting the Rose Stereograph Company, a collection of original glass plate negatives from over 140 years of operation, via NFT.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are used to verify unique items. The blockchain-created certificate of authenticity is used for a digital asset such as art.
All physical items being auctioned have been minted as an NFT and ownership of the NFT will transfer to the highest bidder at the conclusion of the auction. Winning bidders will receive ownership of both the minted NFT and often something tangible, too.
“Cryptocurrency is the way of the future and here at Lloyds we are excited to be able to offer various payment methods, and evolve with the changing world,” Hames said on Thursday.
“The NFTs were a great success, and they provide further evidence that Australian’s, and people all across the world, are developing to the new technology that will one day be a common aspect of society.”