Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari (RACE) says it will now accept cryptocurrencies as payment in the U.S.
The move to accept crypto as payment for its luxury vehicles comes after repeated requests from the company’s wealthy customers, said the company.
Most companies continue to stay away from cryptocurrencies due to volatile swings in the prices of digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
However, Ferrari is not the first automaker to experiment with crypto as a form of payment. In 2021, Tesla (TSLA) briefly accepted payment in Bitcoin before chief executive Elon Musk stopped the practice.
Ferrari said the decision to accept crypto as payment in the U.S. follows requests from many of its dealers, who say that clients have invested heavily in cryptocurrencies in recent years.
Ferrari has turned to BitPay, one of the biggest crypto payment processors, for the initial phase in the U.S., and will allow transactions in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC, one of the largest stablecoins.
Bitpay will turn crypto payments into traditional currency on behalf of Ferrari's dealers, so they are protected from price swings.
The high-end automaker shipped more than 1,800 cars to the U.S. in the first half of this year.
Ferrari, which sold 13,200 cars in 2022 with prices starting at $211,000 U.S., plans to extend crypto payments to Europe in the first quarter of 2024.
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is Ferrari's largest sales region, accounting for 46% of its total car shipments in the first half of this year.
The stock of Ferrari has gained 65% over the last 12 months to trade at $312.02 U.S. per share.
