Latest Earnings Report: Elon Musk’s Tesla Holding Over $200 Million of Bitcoin

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June 25, 2023

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The electric car maker Tesla still holds more than $200m worth of digital assets, with the vast majority believed to be bitcoin (BTC), a new earnings report has revealed.

Per the company’s latest earnings report, the company held $218m worth of “digital assets” as of September 30, which marked the end of the third quarter. The figure is the same as the company reported for the second quarter, after it offloaded BTC worth some $936m during that quarter.

For Q3 21, Q4 21 and Q1 22, Tesla reported digital asset holdings of around $1,260.

Although Tesla does not specify on its balance sheet which digital assets it holds, it is believed that the vast majority of the $218m – if not everything – is held in the form of BTC. However, Tesla chief Elon Musk has in the past indicated that the company also holds some dogecoin (DOGE), although it remains unknown exactly how much.

Tesla has never announced a purchase of DOGE, but it is known that the company accepts the meme coin as payment for some of its merchandise sold online.

Commenting on its overall performance during the quarter, the company said it has achieved “an industry-leading operating margin,” although it admitted that inflation has impacted its profitability.

“The third quarter of 2022 was another strong quarter with record revenue, operating profit and free cash flow. In the last 12 months, our free cash flow exceeded $8.9B. Our operating margin reached 17.2% in Q3,” the company wrote.

Tesla first added bitcoin to its balance sheet in February of 2021, when it bought USD 1.5bn worth of the digital currency. At the time, BTC traded in the USD 30,000 to USD 40,000 range. However, in the first quarter of 2021, Tesla sold 10% of the BTC holdings, claiming that the firm wanted to use BTC to boost its liquidity as and when needed.

The company does not account for bitcoin as a mark-to-market asset, which means that fluctuations in the bitcoin price only affect earnings when it is bought or sold.