Tesla has sold nearly all of its bitcoin holdings. Elon Musk’s electric car company now has only $218 million in the benchmark cryptocurrency, down from a whopping $1.2 billion.
Tesla said in an after-market earnings report released Wednesday that it liquidated 75% of its bitcoin holdings in the second quarter, adding $936 million to its balance sheet.
Tesla stated that “bitcoin impairment” reduced its profitability.
The EV behemoth sold BTC at an average price of around $29,000 per coin, avoiding a significant impairment charge by selling earlier in the quarter.
The company had only $218 million in BTC as of June 30, down from around $1.26 billion in March.
Musk is open to buying bitcoin ahead
During an earlier earnings call, Elon Musk stated that Tesla had sold “a bunch” of its BTC holdings to increase its cash position due to the uncertainty surrounding China’s lockdowns.
When asked if he saw bitcoin as a long-term asset, Musk responded that it was merely a “sideshow to the sideshow” because Tesla’s main goal is “to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy.”
Bitcoin has been a source of contention for Musk and Tesla. Tesla CEO Elon Musk took bitcoin seriously when he added the cryptocurrency to his Twitter bio in January 2021.
Following the purchase of $1.5 billion in bitcoin, Tesla announced that it would accept bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
Then, in May of last year, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment due to concerns about the energy consumption of BTC mining. Musk clarified this week that the sale was not a verdict on bitcoin, and that Tesla is “certainly open to increasing Bitcoin holdings in the future,” while not selling any of its Dogecoin (DOGE) holdings.
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