Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_624fbcabd7961" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Australia&#8217;s largest exchange and a local car retailer have inked a deal allowing customers to buy luxury vehicles with crypto</li>
 <li>The move marks a country first and one of the world&#8217;s first, since Tesla walked back its decision to let its customers make purchases using bitcoin</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



One of Australia&#8217;s largest crypto exchanges by total users has inked a deal with a local retailer allowing individuals to purchase luxury vehicles using crypto.



The deal between crypto exchange CoinSpot and Melbourne-based car retailer Dutton Garage means customers of the company can now make a purchase in up to 30 cryptos including bitcoin, according to a statement on Friday.



The move to allow investors to purchase vehicles using digital assets breaks new ground for the country and is one of the world&#8217;s first since electric carmaker <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/elon-musk-says-people-can-now-buy-a-tesla-with-bitcoin.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla</a> initially proposed the sale of its cars for bitcoin last year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk later <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a36434628/tesla-bitcoin-wont-accept/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">walked back</a> the company&#8217;s decision, citing environmental concerns over bitcoin mining.



Purchases will be made available through CoinSpot&#8217;s over-the-counter trading desk, which the exchange says will limit exposure to market fluctuations, minimize low liquidity risk and reduce slippage for those customers transacting greater than $50,000.



The crypto industry&#8217;s relationship with luxury vehicles has a deep history stemming back to 2011 when startup CEO Peter Saddington cashed in <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16967478/buy-lamborghini-with-bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">45 bitcoin</a> he had acquired for $115 to buy a $200,000 Lamborghini Huracan. The Lamborghini, or “Lambo,” became somewhat of a status symbol to prove one&#8217;s success in the crypto world and inspired a meme culture around it.



Indeed, some luxury vehicles listed on <a href="https://duttongarage.com/classic-cars" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dutton&#8217;s site</a>, including a 1967 Ford Mustang and a 1964 Porsche Coup, retail for around $350,000 Australian dollars (US$262,000).



Both companies said the partnership was in response to &#8220;strong demand&#8221; from Australian customers to purchase vehicles and other luxury items using crypto.



&#8220;With Web3, digital currencies are becoming more than just stores of value, and instead, legitimate ways to purchase big-ticket items,&#8221; CoinSpot Chief Product Officer Gary Howells said. &#8220;Increasing crypto’s utility is the key to driving mass adoption of what we believe is the future of finance.&#8221;



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Australians Can Now Buy Cars With Crypto in Country First

<div id="highlights-block_624a7d6770f1b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Berlin-based payments provider Lunu will facilitate digital payments and help the fashion brand buoy volatile prices</li>
 <li>The brand joins a growing list of luxury fashion lines adopting crypto, including watchmaker Hublot and Italian streetwear brand Philipp Plein</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Luxury fashion brand Off-White has begun accepting cryptocurrency payments across its flagship stores in Paris, Milan and London, <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/want-to-spend-your-crypto-on-fashion-off-white-now-accepts-it" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vogue Business</a> reported Thursday.



Off-White, which generated an estimated <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/the-plan-for-off-white-after-virgil-abloh/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$7 billion in revenue</a> last year, said it will now take bitcoin, ether, binance coin, XRP, tether and Circle&#8217;s USDC in exchange for clothing and apparel.



The brand, founded by the late <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/04/the-grammys-called-virgil-abloh-a-hip-hop-fashion-designer.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virgil Abloh</a>, joins a growing list of luxury fashion brands adopting crypto, including watchmaker Hublot and Italian streetwear line Philipp Plein. The acceptance of digital assets is another sign of the growing appetite among major brands supported by increasingly sophisticated payment infrastructure.



Off-White will reportedly use Berlin-based payments provider Lunu to facilitate digital payments and help the fashion brand buoy volatile prices via a crypto-to-currency point-of-sales arbitrage system. The Lunu System combines a terminal and widget with a processing service that conducts &#8220;instant auctions.&#8221;



That system, based on a pool of independent arbitrageurs, assigns the market price for the crypto-to-fiat exchange, while systems oracles monitor and verify the transactions in third-party blockchains, according to <a href="https://lunu.io/company/why-now" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lunu&#8217;s website</a>. 



“This is another important step in the growth of the brand that looks towards the future, including Web 3.0 technologies, understanding the needs and desires of its ever-evolving customer base,” according to a company statement as cited in the report.



The majority of Off-White&#8217;s consumer base consists mainly of Gen Y or &#8220;<a href="https://440industries.com/off-white-history-case-study-know-the-brand/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Millennials</a>&#8221; — those born between 1981 and 1996. They also happen to be one of the crypto industry&#8217;s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/11/11/cryptos-super-user-young-men-43-of-us-males-aged-18-to-29-have-bought-the-currency/?sh=4cffdd2c349a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">largest adopters</a>.



The company, which was incorporated in Milan in 2012, is majority-owned by <a href="https://www.lvmh.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton</a> after it acquired a 60% stake in the label last year. The brand&#8217;s parent company, New Guards Group, was purchased by luxury marketplace Farfetch for $675 million in August 2019.



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