Billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta advised CNBC on Tuesday his luxurious automotive dealership has bought greater than a dozen automobiles for bitcoin because it started transactions utilizing the digital forex almost three years in the past.

Fertitta’s feedback on “Power Lunch” got here someday after Tesla introduced plans to begin accepting bitcoin as payment for its products. The electrical-vehicle maker additionally mentioned it bought $1.5 billion value of bitcoin utilizing money on its stability sheet.

“Tesla taking it’s rather more vital than me taking it, however consider it or not, we have bought 17 automobiles — Bentleys and [Rolls-Royces] — with bitcoin,” mentioned Fertitta, who additionally runs a vast hospitality empire as chairman and CEO of Houston-based Landry’s Inc.

Fertitta’s Post Oak Motor Cars first started to just accept bitcoin in 2018, according to The Houston Chronicle. He advised CNBC the thought of accepting bitcoin transactions got here from his staff of staff. “We have all the time talked about being revolutionary and forward of all people else and do not be a dinosaur round right here otherwise you will not final,” he mentioned.

In its submitting Monday with the Securities and Change Fee, Tesla mentioned it would start accepting bitcoin as a payment in the near future, “topic to relevant legal guidelines and initially on a restricted foundation, which we might or might not liquidate upon receipt.” If that occurs, Tesla would grow to be the primary main automaker to just accept the digital coin.

Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market worth, has seen its price surge higher after the Tesla information grew to become public. It was buying and selling above $47,000 per coin Tuesday afternoon.

On the time Fertitta’s dealership adopted bitcoin for transactions, the unstable digital coin traded round $6,000 to $7,000 apiece. It was within the midst of a roughly yearlong backslide, falling below $4,000 by December 2018. Bitcoin’s value had peaked just under $20,000 in December 2017.

Bitcoin started a sturdy rally final yr, breaking past its 2017 high in late November. Various components have been attributed to the digital coin’s huge run, together with adoption by high-profile investors who’ve touted its potential as a hedge towards inflation. Established firms equivalent to PayPal even have entered the crypto area, and a few counsel that institutional adoption has helped gasoline bitcoin’s upside transfer.

Tesla’s adoption gives “highly effective endorsements” for bitcoin as a retailer of worth and as a way of cost, Allianz chief financial advisor Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Monday.

Fertitta has spoken positively about bitcoin for years, telling CNBC in December 2017 he believed it was “here to stay.”