Tesla has already converted around 75% bitcoin to fiat currency. With the sale of its cryptocurrency, Tesla left digital assets valued at $218 millions. “We are certainly open to increasing our bitcoin holdings in the future,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, adding: “We have not sold any of our dogecoin.”
Tesla Sells About 75% Of Its Bitcoin Holdings
Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, released its Q2 earnings report Wednesday. It wrote:
At the close of Q2, approximately 75% had been converted into fiat currencies. Our balance sheet was $936M more after the Q2 conversions.
Tesla’s Q2 balance sheet shows net digital assets of $218 million, down from $1.26 billion in the previous quarter. Also, bitcoin impairment had a negative impact on the Q2 operating income.
The electric car company’s statement of cash flows shows proceeds from digital asset sales of $936 million. The only other time Tesla’s cash flow statement showed sales of digital assets was in Q1 2021. At the time, sales proceeds totalled $272 million.
In early 2021, Tesla purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin and hasn’t bought any since. Tesla did not disclose the total number of bitcoins it owned. Musk did however hint in July 2017 that Tesla held approximately 42K bitcoins.
BTC was briefly also accepted by the company for payment, but it was suspended in May 2013 due to environmental concerns. Tesla indicated to the SEC last October that it might accept cryptocurrencies again. Musk subsequently said Tesla will resume accepting bitcoin when there is “confirmation of reasonable (about 50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.” However, at the time of writing, Tesla has not resumed accepting BTC.
Elon Musk: Tesla Has Not Sold Dogecoin and Is ‘Certainly Open to Increasing Our Bitcoin Holdings in Future’
Musk explained to analysts why Tesla sold its majority of BTC during a conference call on Wednesday.
“It should be mentioned that the reason we sold a bunch of our bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the Covid lockdowns in China would alleviate. So it was important for us to maximize our cash position, given the uncertainty of the Covid lockdowns in China,” the Tesla boss detailed, elaborating:
While we are open to expanding our bitcoin holdings, this shouldn’t be taken as a verdict on bitcoin. It’s just that we were concerned about overall liquidity for the company, given Covid shutdowns in China. We haven’t sold any dogecoin.
Tesla did not purchase the cryptocurrency meme dogecoin to balance its books. In January, however DOGE was accepted by the company for some merchandise. Musk stated previously that bitcoin is a store of worth while dogecoin can be used for payments.
In a February filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla said: “We may increase or decrease our holdings of digital assets at any time based on the needs of the business and on our view of market and environmental conditions … We believe in the long-term potential of digital assets both as an investment and also as a liquid alternative to cash.”
Musk is involved in a legal fight with Twitter Inc. Musk offered $44 billion to purchase the social media company, but he officially ended the agreement on July 8. Twitter filed suit against Musk in an attempt to stop him from completing the deal. This lawsuit trial will be held in October.
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