Wen Lambo? Jaguar, Land Rover Customizer Revs Up Bitcoin Strategy

ECD Automotive Design, Inc. has secured $500 million to acquire and store massive amounts of Bitcoin in a corporate treasury, according to the firm’s statement on Monday—a business strategy that has gained traction among a number of public companies over the past few months.

The Florida-based car restoration company, which bills itself as the largest restorator of Land Rovers and Jaguars, signed a $500 million equity facility with ECDA Bitcoin Treasury LLC, according to its press release.

An equity facility is a means of raising capital in which a company sells investors a portion of ownership in its business in exchange for funds.

ECD’s equity facility will largely go toward building its Bitcoin treasury, with a portion of the proceeds funding general corporate initiatives, an ECD Automotive Design representative said in the statement.

“We are excited to secure this significant financing option, which strengthens our financial foundation and enables us to diversify our treasury strategy with Bitcoin,” ECD Automotive Design chief financial officer Ben Piggott said Monday.

ECD Automotive design did not immediately reply to Decrypt’s request for additional comment.

The company’s Bitcoin-focused business move forms part of its initiative to deepen its engagement with the cryptocurrency community.

In March, ECD Automotive Design unveiled a recent crypto payment partnership with crypto payment service provider BitPay. Over the next 12 months, ECD plans to offer $21,000 credits in vehicle upgrades to the first 21 customers that purchase vehicles using Bitcoin.

The company’s bid to tap crypto communities also comes as a growing field of publicly traded businesses establish Bitcoin-based treasuries—a play popularized by Michael Saylor’s software firm Strategy, which holds roughly $60 billion in Bitcoin based on current pricing.

A total of 243 public companies hold Bitcoin—a number that has grown 13% in the past month, according to data from bitcointreasuries.net.

Bitcoin is trading at 102,961 as of writing time, CoinGecko data shows.

Edited by James Rubin