Payment availability may vary

RM Sotheby's

Collector-car auction house taking crypto via BitPay since 2021, with a pre-approved BitPay ID required — so BitPay's stablecoin list, USDC included, applies.

Luxury rmsothebys.com Last reviewed

At a glance

Accepts stablecoins?
Yes — availability varies (payment availability may vary)
Stablecoins
USDCUSDTDAIPYUSDUSDPGUSDEURC
How you pay
Invoice, paid from your wallet
Payment provider
BitPay
Verified
· 3 source s · see evidence
Limitations
A pre-approved BitPay ID is required before the auction; "RM Sotheby's and BitPay reserve the right to deny any BitPay ID application". · 3 more
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Payment readiness

Every line from the record; gaps are stated, not filled.
Confirmed coin and network pairings
  • USDC — network pairing not documented
  • USDT — network pairing not documented
  • DAI — network pairing not documented
  • PYUSD — network pairing not documented
  • USDP — network pairing not documented
  • GUSD — network pairing not documented
  • EURC — network pairing not documented
  • Networks listed without a coin attribution: Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana
Evidence
Documentation checked · 2026-09-14 Corroborated by merchant announcement, gateway documentation
Payment route
Via BitPay Checkout is handled by a payment gateway; the asset list is the gateway’s as enabled by the merchant.
Countries
Available internationally — no exclusions documented
Product restrictions
4 documented
Refunds
Not documented for crypto. Auction purchases are final under the conditions of sale; BitPay settles to RM Sotheby's in fiat, so any refund due would come from the auction house in its own currency.
Identity checks
Identity verification required
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See the sources
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Stablecoins accepted

A dash means we found no evidence of support, not that support is impossible. Coin availability at checkout can differ by country and product.

Payment networks

Which network each coin is accepted on, exactly as RM Sotheby's documents it. A coin and a network appearing in the same record does not by itself mean the two go together.

USDC
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
USDT
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
DAI
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
PYUSD
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
USDP
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
GUSD
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.
EURC
Pairing not documented — RM Sotheby's lists Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Solana without saying which coin each applies to.

Pay on the cheapest network offered — RM Sotheby's receives the same amount either way, so the fee comes out of your side. Our network comparison covers which to pick.

Payment method

Payment provider
BitPay
Direct wallet transfer
No
Identity verification
Required

Availability

Online
Yes
Physical locations
Yes
Regions served
International

Payment notes

RM Sotheby's FAQ lists acceptable payment for a vehicle as "certified funds ... cash, wire transfers, and certified checks", a personal or company cheque with a bank letter of guarantee, and "Cryptocurrency as a form of payment via BitPay", which "requires a BitPay account". The process it describes: obtain a pre-approved BitPay ID before the auction; if you win, BitPay emails an invoice; sign in to the BitPay account matching the ID, view the bill, choose the wallet and cryptocurrency, scan the QR code or copy the details, and confirm in your wallet. The FAQ's own disclaimer: "the exchange rate is locked for 15 minutes. RM Sotheby's and BitPay are not responsible for any exchange rate changes when payment does not occur within the 15-minute period." The 2021 press release names the assets BitPay then carried — BTC, BCH, DOGE, ETH, LTC, WBTC "and stablecoins BUSD, DAI, GUSD, USDP, and USDC" — and notes RM Sotheby's receives fiat settlement the next business day "with no cryptocurrency price volatility or risk to the consignor nor the company". BUSD is no longer issued and is not recorded; BitPay's list has since added USDT, PYUSD and EURC and the layer-2 networks, which is what a buyer would see on the invoice today. A pre-approved BitPay ID means BitPay's identity verification is done before the hammer falls, not at payment.

Refunds

Not documented for crypto. Auction purchases are final under the conditions of sale; BitPay settles to RM Sotheby's in fiat, so any refund due would come from the auction house in its own currency.

Stablecoin refunds are outbound payments a merchant chooses to send, not automatic reversals. There is no chargeback.

A classic Ferrari paid for in USDC is the kind of headline that appeared in 2021 and rarely survives contact with the seller’s current terms. RM Sotheby’s is the exception: the FAQ on its site today still says BitPay, and explains how.

Before the sale, not after

The unusual step is the timing. RM Sotheby’s wants a pre-approved BitPay ID before the auction — BitPay’s identity verification done in advance — and reserves the right to refuse one. Win the lot and BitPay emails the invoice; you pay from the account that matches the ID. That moves the compliance work to before the hammer, which for a six- or seven-figure car is the only place it could sensibly go.

Fifteen minutes

Once you open the invoice and proceed, the rate is locked for fifteen minutes, and the FAQ says plainly that neither RM Sotheby’s nor BitPay will absorb a move if you miss it. On a stablecoin the lock barely matters; on Bitcoin, for a car, it is the difference between a rounding error and a serious sum. This is the strongest practical argument for paying an auction invoice in USDC rather than in anything else.

The coin list

BitPay’s, then and now. The 2021 release named DAI, GUSD, USDP, USDC and the since-retired BUSD; BitPay’s current list adds USDT, PYUSD and EURC and six networks. RM Sotheby’s has not published a list of its own, which is why the badge says “may vary”.

Sotheby’s proper runs crypto through Coinbase Commerce with far stricter custodian rules. The 1916 Company and Hero Bullion are the other BitPay merchants selling at this price level. The luxury category compares the conditions.

Verification

Payment availability may vary Verified September 2026

Crypto payment is confirmed, but the exact coin list is not fixed — it can depend on your country, the product, which checkout you reach, or which assets the merchant's payment gateway currently enables.

Two pages on the merchant's own domain: the current FAQ, which names BitPay as the crypto route and describes the BitPay ID requirement and payment flow, and the 17 November 2021 press release in its media centre, which names the stablecoins BitPay carried at launch. The FAQ establishes that the route is current; the release establishes that stablecoins were within scope from the start. Because the merchant names the gateway rather than a coin list of its own, the stablecoin and network lists recorded are BitPay's published ones, cited as the third source, and the status is "may vary" — the same treatment as CyberGhost, Hero Bullion and Wrist Aficionado. We did not bid. Company description and location are from the release.

Methods used

  • merchant documentation
  • merchant announcement
  • payment provider documentation

Sources

Payment availability can change without notice. Always confirm at RM Sotheby's’s own checkout before paying. Spotted something wrong?

Work at RM Sotheby's? Claim this listing to correct what we have recorded. Claims are checked against evidence before anything changes. Or feature your business — placement is labelled and never changes the facts above.

Recent changes

Dated history for this record. We log only changes we can evidence, so an entry here reflects something that actually moved — not routine re-checking. The full feed across every merchant is on What’s Changed .

  1. Added to directory

    Added after confirming BitPay in the current FAQ and the 2021 announcement naming stablecoins. Coin list is BitPay's.

  2. Payment provider changed

    RM Sotheby's announced BitPay as its cryptocurrency payment processor, debuting at the Guikas Collection sale on 19 November 2021, with stablecoins among the accepted assets.

    payment_provider: BitPay

    Evidence

Limitations

  • A pre-approved BitPay ID is required before the auction; "RM Sotheby's and BitPay reserve the right to deny any BitPay ID application".
  • Payment is by emailed BitPay invoice after the sale, with the exchange rate locked for 15 minutes once you proceed; neither party covers a rate move if you miss the window.
  • The coin and network list is BitPay's, not RM Sotheby's: the FAQ names the gateway, the 2021 release names the coins BitPay carried then.
  • All other payments must be certified funds; the crypto route is the only alternative to wire, cash or certified cheque.

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Is this information still correct?

Payment options change without notice. If RM Sotheby's’s checkout no longer matches what is on this page, tell us — an editor re-verifies against the merchant’s own documentation before anything changes here.

Is the payment information on this page still correct?

Reports go to a review queue. They never change a listing directly.

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