Another Finland based company that rents luxury yachts, NAMI, has integrated Bitcoin as a payment option. Miika Toivonen from Luxury Collection by Auto-Outlet has already sold Tesla electric cars and other premium-cars with Bitcoin and is willing to extend Bitcoin payments as a part of his other businesses as well, this time, luxury yachts.
Miika Toivonen, Director of NAMI, says:
“We’re always willing to take part on everything that is new, like selling Teslas with Bitcoin, so why cant we also rent yachts as well. So far we’ve sold a nice amount of Tesla electric cars around Europe, so I believe the same thing will work with luxury yachts as well.”
In January 2016, Auto Outlet Helsinki Oy who sold a Tesla Model S P85+ for an amount in Bitcoin equivalent to €140.000. This transaction proved to be a significant step for Bitcoin as more vendors and businesses have followed suit afterwards.
Bitcoin is world’s fastest growing payment option and currency. Over 100,000 vendors all over the world have already added Bitcoin as a payment option. Finland is one of the top countries on Bitcoin usage if we measure by Bitcoin currency exchange, Bitcoin ATM numbers or Bitcoin accepting merchants per capita.
Mutual benefits
According to Aleksi Vitakoski, former Bitcoinkaupat (Bitcoinshops in Finnish) CEO, whose present business is to help companies to get growth from the Bitcoin space, the demand for expensive luxury brands bought with Bitcoin is rising. Vitakoski attributes this to the increase in the number of wealthy players on board.
He says:
“When numbers and numbers financial operators are getting more and more interested about Bitcoin, we’ve noticed that demand for expensive luxury brands bought with Bitcoin is rising. This is simply because there is more wealthy players on board. We are launching Bitcoin payments for Luxury Collection and in the future as we want to help more companies to benefit from Bitcoin-technology and phenomenon.”
Asked about his opinion over this new development, CEO of Prasos Oy, Henry Brade says:
“It’s nice to see that adding one payment option can lead to more purchases and it’s also very natural move by NAMI to extend Bitcoin payments to yachts as well.”
Outlook for luxury goods
According to reports by Luxury Society, despite glaring challenges, the outlook for the luxury goods industry remains optimistic, with sales set to reach $328 bln in 2016, having increased from $317 bln in 2015.
Adding Bitcoin as mode of payment seems to represent a mutually beneficial step for both the business owners and the cryptocurrency.
If volume of transaction is anything to go by in the spread and stability of any product, then Bitcoin can be said to be headed in the right direction.
One industry that cannot be disputed in terms of volume of trade and transaction is the luxury industry.