Tesla's Q1 SEC Filing Reveals $2.48 Billion in BTC Holdings
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EV manufacturer Tesla has put an exact figure on its BTC holdings, revealing that, as of March 31, 2021, it held $2.48 billion worth of BTC on its balance sheet.
Tesla’s Q1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted that the “fair market value of BTC held as of March 31, 2021 was $2.48 billion.”
In the filing, Tesla recorded a net gain of $101 million on digital assets during the quarter, based on realized gains of $128 million through sales, and $27 million of impairment losses on its BTC investment during the same period. BTC is the only digital asset held by the company.
The filing follows an investor call yesterday, in which Tesla revealed that it had sold 10% of its BTC holdings for $272 million in the first quarter of 2021. CEO Elon Musk later tweeted that the company had done so in order to “prove liquidity of BTC as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.”
No, you do not. I have not sold any of my BTC. Tesla sold 10% of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of BTC as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021
The automaker revealed in a January 2021 SEC filing that it had purchased BTC worth $1.5 billion, and planned to accept BTC as payment for its products—keeping any BTC earned from sales, rather than converting it into fiat currency. True to its word, last month Tesla introduced the option to purchase its products using BTC in the US, noting that it would introduce the feature to other regions later in the year.
Tesla’s BTC buy sparked a rush of interest in the cryptocurrency, with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor—who offered to share his “playbook” for buying BTC with Musk—describing it as the “tip of the iceberg” for institutional investment.
