Tesla sells 75% of its Bitcoins a year after acquiring it for $1.5 billion

Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc said that it has sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings. Bitcoins sold in Q2 generated $936 million, the company said. Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoins last year and even accepted it as payment for its products for a brief period.

“As of the end of Q2, we have converted approximately 75% of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency. Conversions in Q2 added $936 million of cash to our balance sheet,” the company said in its quarterly results. 

According to a Reuters report, during the earnings calls, Musk said that this was driven by the uncertainty over Covid-19 in China, which has impacted production for the company. Bloomberg reported in June that Tesla is ramping up production at the Shanghai factory and is eyeing 1 million electric vehicles annually. 

Musk has been a strong supporter of cryptos. After announcing last March that Tesla will accept payments in Bitcoins, the company made a U-turn due to backlash over the environmental concerns of proof-of-work-based cryptos. 

Musk had then said that Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment and until a more environment-friendly mechanism for mining is developed his company won’t accept payments in it. 

In September 2021, the company said in a quarterly filing with US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) that it is planning to start accepting payments in other cryptos again. Dogecoin is one of the cryptos that Tesla accepts for payments for its products. 

Musk revealed last October that he supports Dogecoin because a lot of people in Tesla and his Spacex own it and “it felt like the people’s crypto,” according to a Bitcoin.com report. 

The value of Bitcoin fell briefly after Tesla’s announcement. In Asia, the value dropped by 5% on Thursday. It recovered quickly and was last up 1.04% at $23,494.57, according to the Reuters report.