Tesla sold roughly three quarters of its bitcoin supply in the past quarter, earning back USD 936 million, converted more than EUR 913 million. According to CEO Elon Musk, the cryptocurrency was sold after concerns about Tesla’s liquidity.
In a webcast Explaining the decision to sell most of the bitcoin supply, CEO Elon Musk said: “We sold a significant portion of our bitcoin properties due to the unknown duration of the covid lockdowns in China. It was important for us to improve our liquidity position.” Musk emphasizes that Tesla is ‘open’ to future investments in bitcoin; the recent sale of the cryptocurrency should not be seen as a judgment on the cryptocurrency. He also says emphatically that no dogecoin has been sold, another cryptocurrency that Musk regularly expresses his support for.
It is not entirely clear to what extent Tesla may be making a loss with the sale of bitcoin. The car company invested 1.5 billion dollars in bitcoin in early 2021 and started accepting the coin as a means of payment for Teslas. With the sale of 75 percent of the amount of bitcoin, roughly 1.1 billion euros in fiat currency should be recouped, but that does not apply due to the strongly decreased value of the virtual currency. If Tesla also sold bitcoin earned from the sale of vehicles, the twisted loss would be even greater. Incidentally, bitcoin was a valid means of payment at Tesla for less than two months; the decision was reversed within 49 days because mining and trading bitcoin would be too bad for the environment.
Furthermore, Tesla reports in the recent quarterly figures that a profit of more than 2.2 billion euros was made in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of almost 32 percent compared to the previous quarter. Today’s profits are still almost double compared to the same quarter last year. Sales have also fallen somewhat since the first quarter of this year, but have increased by roughly 40 percent compared to the second quarter of 2021.