Tesla’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings remain unchanged in Q3 2023. As of June 30, the electric car manufacturer holds $184 million worth of the crypto asset on its balance sheet.
Despite Bitcoin rising roughly 7% this quarter, the value of Tesla’s holdings stayed flat. This is because accounting regulations don’t allow for unrealized gains on cryptocurrencies to be recorded.
Tesla’s $184 Million Bitcoin Stash Remains Untouched
Tesla first purchased Bitcoin in early 2021, when the company made an investment of $1.5 billion in the digital asset. In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the automaker said that the cryptocurrency was added to its balance sheet for more flexibility to help diversify and maximize its return on cash.
The announcement led to Bitcoin prices shooting up to $44,000. At the time, Elon Musk went on Twitter to announce that Tesla would start accepting BTC for payments but later backtracked his statements, citing concerns over the carbon footprint of the digital asset.
In the second quarter of 2022, Tesla sold roughly 75% of its $1.5 billion Bitcoin stash, bringing the value of digital assets under its balance sheet to $218 million. The move resulted in the company adding $936 million in liquidity at a time when Covid-related shutdowns in China were affecting its business. Tesla’s largest manufacturing facility was based out of the country.
By this point, BTC had dropped to the $23,000 range from an all-time high of $69,000 that it had attained only months ago.
During an earnings call in July 2022, Musk declared that Tesla was open to increasing its Bitcoin holdings in the future and its decision to sell should not be taken as a verdict on the cryptocurrency. He elaborated on how important it was for the company to raise capital during economic turbulence.
Tesla further reduced its BTC holdings in the fourth quarter of 2022, from $218 million to $184 million. Going into Q2 2023, it continues to remain at that level.
Interestingly enough, Tesla does not hold any Dogecoin (DOGE). This is despite Musk acknowledging his fondness for the meme token several times over the past.
The Twitter owner even briefly changed the Twitter logo to that of Dogecoin in April. However, Tesla does accept DOGE as a form of payment for products listed on its website.
Elon Facing $250 Billion Lawsuit For Promoting Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme
In June 2022, investor Keith Johnson filed a $250 billion (not a typo!) lawsuit against Musk, alleging that he is running a pyramid scheme along with his companies Tesla and SpaceX to manipulate the price of DOGE.
Johnson argued that Dogecoin had no real value to profit from trading, and since the token’s inception in 2019, Musk was using his pedestal as the world’s richest man to operate and manipulate Dogecoin as a fraudulent scheme for “profit, exposure, and amusement.”
In his defense, Musk’s lawyers said that he publicly supported Dogecoin because it was more accessible to the public than other crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), and that many production line employees at Tesla and SpaceX owned DOGE. Elon’s team is pushing for the court to dismiss the lawsuit arguing that there is nothing illegal about supporting a cryptocurrency that has a market value of over $10 billion.
During May’s CEO Council Summit hosted by the Wall Street Journal, the tech billionaire said that he is not advising anyone to buy crypto or invest their life savings into Dogecoin. However, Musk reiterated his likeness for the meme token, going as far as saying that it is his favorite cryptocurrency due to its inherent humor and inclusion of dogs.
Many saw a noticeable connection between the Tesla founder’s tweets related to DOGE and the price of the cryptocurrency. He tweeted about Dogecoin multiple times between 2019 and 2022, leading to an increase in the price of the asset.
Twitter To Support Crypto
Being an avid supporter of cryptocurrencies and their use cases, everyone expects Musk to add support for digital assets on Twitter sometime in the near future.
Recently, Twitter struck a deal with the digital asset investment platform eToro, allowing users to view global markets, and also buy and sell cryptocurrencies, stocks, and bonds. With the integration, Twitter users can access real-time trading data provided by eToro and conduct trades by visiting the platform through a direct link provided to them.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading $29,888 – up 0.3% in the last 24 hours.
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