Tesla has sold portions of the bitcoin it held on its balance sheet, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. The auto-tech giant reportedly took in profits of $272 million from the sale of its digital assets, accounting for just a small percentage of its total BTC holdings, given its initial purchase of $1.5 billion.
While the move to sell its bitcoin at a profit is assuredly what many mainstream investors have been expecting, the small portion that was sold suggests that the company believes retaining most of its bitcoin will be beneficial in the future. CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to clarify that Tesla sold 10% of its BTC holdings to prove the asset’s liquidity and viability as an alternative to cash on its balance sheet.
If Tesla and Musk were simply interested in using bitcoin to get rich quick, the company would have gotten rid of its entire stock of bitcoin. The reality is that Tesla utilized the Number Go Up technology of bitcoin to secure itself a large profit in a short amount of time, while also securing an unfathomable amount of bitcoin for its future. In reality, the offloading of this bitcoin, while astronomical in scope, still leaves Tesla with an extremely large accumulation base.
In his tweet, Musk also noted that he has his own separate stack of bitcoin that remains unsold. On May 15, 2020, he announced publicly that he owns 0.25 BTC, but it’s reasonable to assume that stack has grown given Tesla’s own embrace.