The term Lambo refers to the luxury supercar maker, Lamborghini. Its association with the crypto community refers to people using the car as a measure of successful, expected, and rapid growth in their investment to a point where they can buy a Lambo.
Owning a Lamborghini is, without any crypto association, a massive status symbol that indicates wealth. Within the cryptocurrency community, the car is a similar status symbol, but it is more obtainable because of the potential of crypto investments to grow exponentially in a short space of time.
For a general crypto investor, where the space is easy to enter, and does not require massive capital to get started, there is the possibility of making massive gains. Stories of early Bitcoin investors either mining, or buying very cheap coins, seeing their investment turn into millions is not that uncommon.
The familiar term in crypto space is ‘When Lambo?' This question is posed by potential investors in crypto who want to know when the price of a specific coin will grow in value so much that a small investment will be enough for them to purchase a Lamborghini.
This car has become such a crypto status symbol that many successful traders and investors have indeed bought Lamborghinis to play into the cult status of the vehicle. One example is In February 2018, Peter Saddington, entrepreneur and co-founder of VinWiki, bought a Lamborghini for less than $115 thanks to an early interest in cryptocurrencies.
When he decided to cash in the 45 BTC it netted him over $200,000 which was enough for the Lamborghini. However, that same investment would have been worth 5 Lamborghinis if he had held on and sold at a point in 2020.
In fact, there's no question crypto has been fuelling the demand as Lamborghini reported sales were rising steadily in 2018 when the term really took hold, even reporting record sales in January.
##When Lambo? Why Lambo?
Other than the obvious association between luxury and excess in Lambos and the cryptocurrency investment space, the history of this term is an interesting one.
"Lamborghini has always stood for flash, noise and a healthy dose of testosterone," said HL Group president Amy Hufft. "It has been a brand for people who want to be noticed immediately."
It also has connotations about "making it" in America, which is why so many artists have used it as a way to celebrate success, said Hufft. She also added that Lamborghinis also have a bit of a "get rich quick and die out fast" connotation, arguably a statement for the longevity of Bitcoin wealth.
The car's CEO Stefano Domenicali said that young people love Lamborghinis, especially young people that are OK with high-risk and high-reward situations.
"I see the parallel between young people that are really willing to become very rich with a very high-risk investment with the fact that our customers are very young," he said.