Skip to main content

Tesla (TSLA) sold some of its bitcoins and made over $100 million

Tesla (TSLA) already sold some of its $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin purchased earlier this year, and it made over $100 million from the sale.

In February, Tesla surprised many by jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon with a $1.5 billion purchase of Bitcoin — the biggest cryptocurrency in the world.

Last month, the automaker also started accepting Bitcoin as payment for its electric cars.

Bitcoin trading prices went on a wild ride since the purchase to new highs and then retreated significantly over the last few weeks.

Now, with the release of Tesla’s Q1 2021 financial results, Tesla confirmed that it actually trimmed its position in Bitcoin by 10%.

Tesla disclosed having sold $272 million worth of Bitcoin during the last quarter and making roughly $101 million in profit from the sale:

“Year over year, positive impacts from volume growth, regulatory credit revenue growth, gross margin improvement driven by further product cost reductions and sale of Bitcoin ($101 million positive impact net of related impairments, in “Restructuring & Othe” line) were mainly offset by a lower ASP, increased SBC, additional supply chain costs, R&D investments and other items.”

Tesla disclosed that it now held $1.331 billion worth of “digital assets,” which is believed to be only bitcoins, at the end of the quarter.

Zack Kirkhorn, Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer and more recently Tesla’s “Master of Coin,” confirmed in a conference call following the release of Tesla’s Q1 results that the sale occurred in late March.

Kirkhorn confirmed that Tesla plans to hold Bitcoin long-term:

“We do believe in the value of bitcoin long term and we will hold bitcoin long term, and accumulate bitcoin from the transactions from our customers buying vehicles.”

When asked about the logic of Tesla investing in Bitcoin, the CFO said that with yields being so low, they were looking for alternative ways to store money that could be quickly accessed while still potentially gaining value.

If you are interested in getting into crypto, my two favorite ways are Coinbase and crypto.com. With the latter, you can even spend your crypto through a regular Visa debit card. You can use my referral code (44sqxfg7zh) at crypto.com, and we each get $50 worth of crypto.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

Comments

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

You can send tips on Twitter (DMs open) or via email: fred@9to5mac.com

Through Zalkon.com, you can check out Fred’s portfolio and get monthly green stock investment ideas.