Tesla, the US-based electric car manufacturer co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has sold off 75 percent of its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings. Musk has been a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies, but the current Crypto Winter that has led to an unprecedented plunge in the prices of most crypto coins has led to Tesla selling off its majority BTC holdings. However, Musk clarified that the company is still holding on to its Dogecoin (DOGE) assets. The meme-based altcoin has been a favourite of Musk for years, who has often come out in its support on Twitter, rallying its prices from time to time.
In its Q2 earnings report, Tesla said it has “converted approximately 75 percent of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency.” The carmaker said that the Q2 conversions added $936 million to its balance sheet. The offloaded Bitcoin was worth nearly $2 billion towards the end of last year.
Bitcoin saw an all-time high of $68,000 in November 2021, but the current market meltdown has seen the world’s oldest and most valued crypto plunge down to $18,000 late last month. The surge in BTC price last year was mostly attributed to Tesla announcing a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin.
At the time of writing, BTC price stood at $22,65.19, as per CoinMarketCap data.
In its balance sheet, Tesla reported that it now owns $218 million in digital assets, down from $1.26 billion in Q1.
Tesla, however, is still holding on to its Dogecoin holdings, Musk said during a post-earnings conference call. While Tesla didn’t reveal the details of its DOGE assets, the company started accepting payments in the altcoin for its merchandise earlier this year.
In terms of quarterly profit, Tesla reported a smaller-than-expected drop, thanks to a series of price hikes for its vehicles. “You can't kind of just raise prices to some arbitrarily high level because you pass the affordability boundary and then the demand falls off a cliff,” Musk said during the conference call. “[Prices] are frankly at embarrassing levels. But we've also had a lot of supply chain and production shocks and we've got crazy inflation.”
Disclaimer: Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. Cryptocurrency is not a legal tender and is subject to market risks. Readers are advised to seek expert advice and read offer document(s) along with related important literature on the subject carefully before making any kind of investment whatsoever. Cryptocurrency market predictions are speculative and any investment made shall be at the sole cost and risk of the readers.
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