Elon Musk’s Tesla Leaves Bitcoin Holdings Unchanged for Fifth Consecutive Quarter

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Jai Pratap

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Jai Pratap

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Jai serves as the Asia Desk Editor for Cryptonews.com, where he leads a diverse team of international reporters. Jai has over five years of experience covering the web3 industry.

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October 19, 2023 01:20 EDT

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In its latest earnings report, Tesla revealed that it did not change its Bitcoin holdings for the fifth consecutive quarter. 

The report, released on October 18, 2023, revealed that Tesla’s balance sheet still holds 9,720 bitcoins, with a market value of approximately $275.6 million.

The notable aspect of this report is that it makes no mention of any conversion of Bitcoin to fiat currency. Typically, such conversions would impact a company’s profitability and cash balance and necessitate disclosure. 

The absence of such a mention indicates that Tesla has opted to keep its Bitcoin holdings untouched.

Tesla Acquired 43,000 Bitcoins in 2021

This stance marks a significant contrast to Tesla’s previous interactions with Bitcoin. In early 2021, Tesla had acquired over 43,000 bitcoins at an estimated average price of roughly $34,000, propelling its Bitcoin treasury to a peak value of $1.5 billion.

However, concerns about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining led Elon Musk to reverse course. As a result, Tesla sold a portion of its Bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2021 and offloaded about 75% of its remaining bitcoins at a 48% loss in the second quarter of 2022.

Despite these fluctuations, Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings remain one of the largest among publicly traded companies. 

Investors closely monitor Tesla’s decisions regarding its Bitcoin stack because Elon Musk’s involvement in cryptocurrencies has the potential to influence the market significantly. 

The news of Tesla’s initial Bitcoin purchase in 2021 had driven the Bitcoin price to an all-time high.

In its Q3 report, Tesla disclosed that it had significantly increased its computing power for AI projects, noting a substantial expansion in its training data set and a transition in the training of its humanoid robot Optimus from coded software to AI-based methods.