- After buying $1.5 billion of bitcoin in 2021, Tesla sold three-quarters of its holdings the next year as the market was tanking.
- Bitcoin has since rebounded in a big way, jumping about 80% just in the past year, meaning Tesla has lost out on billions of dollars in potential gains.
In its earnings report Wednesday, Tesla said its holdings of digital assets rose to $1.24 billion from $722 million a year ago, reflecting bitcoin’s rally.
Tesla missed on the top and bottom lines in the second quarter, but another miss was buried in its investor deck.
The company’s digital assets are currently valued at $1.24 billion.
That’s up substantially from $722 million a year ago. But anyone who’s been following the crypto market knows that the figure represents a lost opportunity amounting to billions of dollars in missed gains for the electric vehicle maker.
Bitcoin is trading near a record and is up 80% over the past year. Tesla sold 75% of its holdings in mid-2022, when the digital currency was trading at a fraction of its current price.
While CEO Elon Musk has made clear that the future of his electric vehicle company is about robotaxis and humanoid robots — not about crypto investments — the business in its current form is struggling and could use the cash boost.
Tesla reported a second straight drop in auto revenue in its earnings report late Wednesday, and came up short of Wall Street estimates. The stock plunged 8% on Thursday and is now down about 25% for the year, by far the biggest drop among tech’s megacaps.
Robotaxis and Optimus robots are huge and costly bets for Musk in markets with stiff competition and ever-changing dynamics. Tesla has also acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the expiration of federal EV tax credits could hurt the company’s core business in the coming quarters.
Tesla’s digital assets, meanwhile, are bolstering profitability. Gains from bitcoin in the second quarter amounted to $284 million in a period when total net income was $1.17 billion.
The gains could have been much greater.
In early 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin, banking on what the EV company called the digital currency’s “long-term potential” and to add “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”
Musk had become a loud proponent of bitcoin online, and in January of that year, the currency skyrocketed 20% in a day after the Tesla CEO added #bitcoin to his bio on Twitter, now X.
By mid-2022, the world was in a much different place. The Covid-era boom was gone, replaced by soaring inflation and rising interest rates, an equation that pushed investors out of risky assets.
Tesla missed on the top and bottom lines in the second quarter, but another miss was buried in its investor deck.
The company’s digital assets are currently valued at $1.24 billion.
That’s up substantially from $722 million a year ago. But anyone who’s been following the crypto market knows that the figure represents a lost opportunity amounting to billions of dollars in missed gains for the electric vehicle maker.
Bitcoin is trading near a record and is up 80% over the past year. Tesla sold 75% of its holdings in mid-2022, when the digital currency was trading at a fraction of its current price.
While CEO Elon Musk has made clear that the future of his electric vehicle company is about robotaxis and humanoid robots — not about crypto investments — the business in its current form is struggling and could use the cash boost.
Tesla reported a second straight drop in auto revenue in its earnings report late Wednesday, and came up short of Wall Street estimates. The stock plunged 8% on Thursday and is now down about 25% for the year, by far the biggest drop among tech’s megacaps.
Robotaxis and Optimus robots are huge and costly bets for Musk in markets with stiff competition and ever-changing dynamics. Tesla has also acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the expiration of federal EV tax credits could hurt the company’s core business in the coming quarters.
Tesla’s digital assets, meanwhile, are bolstering profitability. Gains from bitcoin in the second quarter amounted to $284 million in a period when total net income was $1.17 billion.
The gains could have been much greater.
In early 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin, banking on what the EV company called the digital currency’s “long-term potential” and to add “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”
Musk had become a loud proponent of bitcoin online, and in January of that year, the currency skyrocketed 20% in a day after the Tesla CEO added #bitcoin to his bio on Twitter, now X.
By mid-2022, the world was in a much different place. The Covid-era boom was gone, replaced by soaring inflation and rising interest rates, an equation that pushed investors out of risky assets.
