(GOWER, Mo.) A luxury Lamborghini isn’t something typically seen rolling out of the small town of Gower, but a car dealership has quite possibly sold a Dallas man his dream car using cryptocurrency.
“I’m the first ever to buy a lamborhgini with Litecoin,” said John Kim, Chief Litecoin Evangelist, Litecoin Foundation.
For the past four years, John Kim has invested in Litecoin, a type of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Dogecoin. Kim compares Litecoin as the silver currency to Bitcoin’s gold.
It was a risky investment he poured his life into.
“I sold everything four years ago: my house, my business. I got into my truck and left to promote Litecoin, to push for adoption of Litecoin,” said Kim, “Everybody said I was crazy, they said it’s a ponzi, it’s virtual nerd money. What are you doing?”
Well, that need “nerd money” just landed Kim a bright orange Lambo paid in full with cryptocurrency. The nearly $300,000 sports car was traded for 800+ Litecoins worth $360 a share. It was a historic purchase that at first the local dealership, Dennis Sneed For, wasn’t too gassed up about.
“Of course, ya know? What are we doing here? This is a lot of money. This is a lot of risk,” said Chad Sneed, VP of Dennis Sneed Ford.
But after a few days of email exchanges between Kim and Sneed, the Gower dealership was all in.
“I started investigating it a little more. I have a coin-based account which trades cryptocurrency. Realized, ‘Hey, this seems pretty straightforward if you’re willing to pay the transaction fees involved, we’d be happy to take the litecoin. Let’s do it,’” said Sneed.
On Thursday, after Litecoin hit $360 per ‘coin,’ the deal was made. Kim traded some of his coins for the luxury vehicle and made his nine-hour trip back home to Dallas, Texas. But Kim said before you sell everything you own for cryptocurrency, pump the breaks.
“Don’t do that. I’m an all in, all out type of guy,” said Kim, “Do your own research, take some time to learn why we need Bitcoin and Litecoin and then jump in a little bit to test the waters. Don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose.”
For Kim, it was an investment worth the risk and one that so far has paid off in the most luxurious way.