In a recent tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented that the e-car maker has close to $1.47 billion worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
We don’t have that many Bitcoin, but it’s close
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2021
Tesla disclosed a $1.5 billion Bitcoin bet in its 10-K report that was issued on Feb. 8.
The mammoth purchase made by the S&P 500 company helped to boost the price of the largest cryptocurrency by roughly 57 percent in just over a month.
The company took some chips off the table in March and booked a $101 million profit in April, a move that was supposed to put the cryptocurrency’s liquidity to a test. By trimming its position, Tesla managed to significantly boost its Q1 earnings.
Due to a huge price crash, Tesla had to record a $23 million Bitcoin-related impairment loss in the second quarter.
The company didn’t add up to its cryptocurrency holdings.
Alex DovbnyaMusk remains a Bitcoin supporter
At the “B Word” conference, Musk also revealed that SpaceX had also bought Bitcoin. It’s not clear how much it owns since his rocket company is private.
The bombastic billionaire also personally owns Bitcoin as well as Ethereum and meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Musk, of course, is coy about the size of his cryptocurrency portfolio, but he did say that Bitcoin constituted the lion’s share of it.
Despite making multiple bearish statements about Bitcoin after Tesla stopped accepting the cryptocurrency due to its CO2 footprint, Musk made it clear that he was still a supporter during the conference.
He also confirmed that Tesla would “most likely” give Bitcoin payments another go.
Dan Burgin
