Tesla, the electric vehicle and clean energy company, has opted to hold its remaining Bitcoin (BTC) through the fourth quarter of 2022, despite turmoil in the crypto market. The company made the decision after selling 75% of its cryptocurrency holdings last year.
Tesla announced in February 2021 that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its products. At the time, the company stated that it had no plans to sell its bitcoin holdings. However, it sold 75% of its Bitcoin for $936 million in July 2022.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk gave reasons why his firm needed to sell its Bitcoin holdings. He emphasized that the Covid-related lockdown in China had raised concerns about Tesla’s overall liquidity.
Furthermore, the CEO said he has also held onto its Dogecoin (DOGE), which is currently the only crypto accepted for payment by the car manufacturer. It is worth noting that Dogecoin is acceptable for some selected products, and not as payment for its vehicles.
The company’s 2022, Q3 report, which was released on October 19, shows its balance sheet has $218 million in digital assets, with no reported losses in the value of its holdings. Tesla is reported to have around 9,720 BTC as of today.
Subsequently, Bitcoin’s price fell during the fourth quarter after remaining relatively stable during the second quarter. This was largely caused by the collapse of FTX, but since the beginning of 2023, Bitcoin has shown signs of recovery and is up nearly 40% year to date.
Companies Betting Big on Blockchain
Besides the $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin acquired by Tesla 2 years ago, other firms are diversifying their portfolio with the asset. The company also hit a milestone as a big promoter of Bitcoin by being the first auto manufacturer to accept it as payment.
In a similar circumstance, BMW, a German-based vehicle manufacturer has announced a strategic partnership with Coinweb and BNB Chain. BMW intends to use the BNB Chain for its work operations in order to reduce the time and effort associated with manual processes and to streamline BMW’s automobile financing operations.
Meanwhile, Twitter has launched a new cryptocurrency feature. The new feature will allow users to look up the price of Bitcoin and Ether by typing their names or tickers into the search bar.
