Of the initial $ 1.5 billion investment announced in February 2021, only a small portion remains now. In the last period, Tesla has also decided to sell a substantial share of its Bitcoins. More precisely, about 75% of those checked. The automaker has therefore chosen to reduce its commitment related to crypto which, like most of the other digital assets, has recorded a significant decline in its value from the beginning of spring onwards.
Bitcoin: Tesla has also decided to sell
Below we report in translated form what is read in a document ( PDF ) aimed at investors, commenting on the financial results obtained during Q2 2022. The section from which the passage is taken is entitled, in a rather emblematic way, "Bitcoin impairment" or "The weakening of Bitcoin".
At the end of the second quarter, we converted about 75% of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency. Conversions in the second quarter added $ 963 million in cash to our balance sheet.
When Tesla announced its investment in Bitcoin almost a year and a half ago, the price of the cryptocurrency had just passed the $ 40,000 mark. Today it stands below $ 23,000. A commitment that at one point turned out to be rather uncomfortable, also and above all for the issues raised on the sustainability front.
At the beginning of spring, Elon Musk proudly announced via social media the possibility of buying the cars of the group by paying for them in BTC (overseas only), only to quickly dismiss the initiative a few weeks later.
However, the link between the company's CEO and the crypto world remains strong. The solidity of the relationship is fueled by both directions, as evidenced by the recent participation of the Binance exchange in the attempt to take over Twitter, with considerable economic support quantified in 500 million dollars. The deal, as anyone who has followed its evolutions knows, has recently taken an unexpected turn.