Elon Musk’s Tesla has sold a massive chunk of its holding in the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. While reporting its Q2 earnings, the electric car maker revealed that it had sold 75 per cent of its Bitcoin holdings.
Tesla in a shareholder letter on Wednesday said, “as of the end of Q2, we have converted approximately 75 per cent of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency.” With this transaction, the company has added $936M cash to its traditional cash flow. “Conversions in Q2 added $936M of cash to our balance sheet,” the letter added.
During an investor call, Musk addressed the crypto selloff, saying that it “should not be taken as some verdict on Bitcoin.” He added that the primary reason for the sale was uncertainty about lockdowns due to COVID-19 in China, which has created production challenges for the company.
Back in 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, announcing that it would also accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Following this, the company started accepting Bitcoin in late March, however, reversed it abruptly reversed just 49 days later. Musk has said the company could resume accepting bitcoin once it conducts due diligence on the amount of renewable energy it takes to mine the currency.
Notedly, Musk has highlighted that Tesla did not sell any of its dogecoin, a meme-based cryptocurrency that he has touted, and also indirectly boosted the price. “We have not sold any of our Dogecoin,” Musk said
In its balance sheet, Tesla also reported that it owns net digital assets worth $218 million, which is down from the $1.26 billion in the previous quarter. In Q1 2021, the statement from the company had shown cash flow from digital assets worth $272 million.
Talking about Bitcoin, its prices soared to their all-time highs to almost $69,000 in November 2021. However, for the past few months now. Bitcoin is hovering around $17,000 to $22,000.
