Tesla refuses to sell any more Bitcoin
Despite having already sold 75% of its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings during the second quarter of 2022, Tesla, a company that manufactures electric vehicles, decided not to sell any more Bitcoin (BTC) during the second half of that year.
For the second quarter in a row, Tesla’s financials reveal that the company did not buy or sell any of its Bitcoin holdings even though it reported its Q4 results on January 25.
This was the case notwithstanding the severe market upheaval that occurred in November and December as a direct result of the failure of FTX. According to the documents, the company had digital assets worth $184 million as of December 31. This is a decrease from the $218 million in holdings it had as of the end of the prior quarter due to $34 million in impairment charges that were incurred as a result of the falling price of Bitcoin between the end of September and December of last year.
On September 30th, Bitcoin’s price was over $19,500, but by December 31st, it had dropped nearly 15% to $16,600.
After selling 75% of its Bitcoin holdings during the previous year’s second quarter, the electric vehicle (EV) maker maintained ownership of the cryptocurrency until the third quarter.
The sale in the second quarter brought in $936 million in cash for Tesla, and the company made a profit of $64 million.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, detailed the motivation for the transaction at the time it occurred, stating that he wanted to “show liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to storing cash on a balance sheet.”
On the other hand, Tesla did not address its Bitcoin holdings or provide its perspective on Bitcoin during its most recent earnings call, which took place on January 25.
It is believed that Tesla has 9,720 BTC in its possession.
The company’s gross margins for the quarter came in at their lowest level in five consecutive quarters, resulting in an overall profit for the quarter of $5.7 billion, on sales of $24.3 billion.
The entire sales for the year was $81.4 billion, yet the corporation still managed to turn a profit of $20.8 million.
The sales number came in lower than the forecasts that the analysts had made, but the profit fared better than the projections that the consensus had made.
The price of Tesla shares ended the day with a gain of about 0.40%, representing a small increase over the course of the day.
According to Google Finance, it kept trading in a favourable direction after hours, climbing approximately 4.6% as of the time this article was written.
