Elon Musk-led electric car company, Tesla, one of the institutions going bullish on Bitcoin and supporting the cryptocurrency, revealed that it owns about $2.5 billion worth of bitcoin in its balance sheet.
The record points out the increase the company made compared to its bitcoin worth last month. Towards the end of March, the company disclosed that it had $2.48 billion worth of bitcoin.
Tesla’s latest record on the worth of total bitcoin in its balance sheet was evaluated after it sold about 10% of its bitcoin on Monday, increasing the company’s revenue by $101 million.
When David Portnoy, an American internet celebrity, and founder of the sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports made a tweet questioning the company’s decision to sell 10% of its bitcoin holdings, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk replied that it was to prove bitcoin’s liquidity.
So am I understanding this correctly? @elonmusk buys #bitcoin. Then he pumps it. It goes up. Then he dumps it and make a fortune. Listen I own 1 #Bitcoin but #bitcoin is exactly who we thought it was. Just don’t be last 1 #HODLing the bag.
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) April 26, 2021
No, you do not. I have not sold any of my Bitcoin. Tesla sold 10% of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021
Although Elon Musk’s company, Tesla sold some of its bitcoins, the CEO made it clear in the same tweet that he has retained his personal investment in cryptocurrency.
Tesla started investing in bitcoin when the company made a groundbreaking purchase of $1.5 billion worth of the asset, adding it to its balance sheet, after months of Musk giving different hints indicating interest in bitcoin.
The electric car company mentioned that the purchase will bring “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns” on its cash holdings, also adding its plans to roll out an option for customers to use bitcoin as payment while buying Tesla products, becoming the first major car company to make such a move.
A few weeks after the announcement to include bitcoin as a payment option for customers, Elon Musk tweeted that the company would be accepting bitcoin payments for purchases made by its US customers apart from its regular traditional card payment option.
The CEO also revealed that the company will be using internal and open-source software to process bitcoin payments, and all the bitcoins that clients use as payments for any Tesla product bought will not be converted to fiat.
