Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings have become a topic of discussion in the crypto community again after cryptocurrency data analytics platform Arkham Intelligence added Tesla’s Bitcoin wallet tracking feature to its dashboard. Tesla’s wallet now holds about 11,509 BTC at the time of writing, 1,789 more than the 9,720 BTC it reported during its last earnings report.
The Elon Musk-led Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in February 2021, near the peak of the last bull run, and it announced plans to accept Bitcoin payments for its cars. However, the firm’s Bitcoin (BTC) adoption was short-lived, with the company first selling about 10% of its holdings in March 2021. In the second quarter of 2022, the electric car maker sold approximately 75% of its Bitcoin reserves.
A timeline of Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings and sales:
- February 2021: Bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin
- March 2021: Sold 4,320 BTC
- 2022: Sold 29,160 BTC
- 2023: There was no change in the balance of 9,720 BTC
Musk has had a love/hate relationship with Bitcoin. In 2021, he expressed optimism about BTC, announcing plans for Tesla to store its own Bitcoin using on-chain wallets. However, within weeks, Musk dropped plans to receive BTC for Tesla cars, citing environmental concerns about Bitcoin mining.
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One user on X was curious whether Tesla has started repurchasing Bitcoin or whether the recent change in figures is due to an accounting error. Another user suggested that the company might have started buying BTC after the last earnings call and could report the newly purchased BTC in its next call. Tesla and Musk have yet to comment on whether Tesla is buying BTC.
Besides Tesla, Musk’s other company, SpaceX, also holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet after MicroStrategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor convinced Musk to add Bitcoin to his company’s balance sheet. MicroStrategy holds 193,000 BTC, making it the largest institutional holder of BTC in the world.
During a panel discussion at the Bitcoin Atlantis conference on March 1, Saylor argued that AI and exchange-traded funds would usher in a decade-long “gold rush” for Bitcoin.
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