Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, said earlier this year in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency. Despite a subsequent short sale, the investment is now worth $1 billion.
Tesla also began taking Bitcoin payments at the time but discontinued them soon afterward due to environmental concerns. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, continued to tweet about cryptocurrencies and expressed strong support for the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
Tesla now holds about 43,200 bitcoins, which are worth $2.5 billion at current rates, since the cryptocurrency has since grown to trade at $57,400, according to CryptoCompare statistics.
Tesla sold 10% of the BTC it originally bought at a reported average price of approximately $50,000 per coin already in the green in the second quarter of the year to demonstrate that the cryptocurrency was liquid enough for its balance sheet.
The company revealed in its Q2 financial report that it earned $128 million on the sale of the BTC it had purchased. Tesla’s net earnings from cryptocurrency holdings are close to matching its $1.14 billion net profit, according to Cointelegraph. It generated close to $12 billion in revenue at the time, including $10.21 billion from automobile sales and $354 million from regulatory credits sales.
Other businesses, like Jack Dorsey’s Square, Galaxy Digital, and Hut 8 Mining, have followed Tesla’s lead and invested in the flagship cryptocurrency. MicroStrategy, a business analytics company, invested before Tesla and has been purchasing BTC since last year.
MicroStrategy now owns 114,041 BTC, which it acquired for about $3.16 billion. These coins are now worth $6.57 billion, implying that the company has already quadrupled its cryptocurrency investment.
Also Read: Coinbase Released Its Digital Asset Policy Proposal
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