Tesla’s latest balance sheet shows the company’s bitcoin holdings worth $184 million. Tesla did not sell any digital assets in the fourth quarter of 2022 despite the crypto winter and contagion in the crypto ecosystem.
Tesla’s Digital Assets Valued at $184 Million
Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) released its earnings results for Q4 2022 on Wednesday. The company’s balance sheet shows net digital assets of $184 million, down from $218 million in the previous quarter. According to its other financial statements, no digital assets were bought or sold during the fourth quarter.
The electric car company’s digital assets comprise mostly bitcoin. The reduced value of its crypto holdings is due to fluctuations in the price of BTC, which led to an impairment charge of $34 million. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $23,087; it fell from about $47.8K to around $16.6K during 2022.
Tesla has not revealed how many bitcoin it owns but an industry estimate suggests that it is hodling about 9,720 BTC. Besides bitcoin, Tesla also holds a small amount of dogecoin (DOGE) which it acquired from selling some merchandise for the meme cryptocurrency. The company began accepting payments in dogecoin for some merchandise in January last year.
Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC in early 2021 and has not purchased any more since. However, the company dumped about 75% of its BTC holdings in the second quarter of last year. CEO Elon Musk explained at a time that Tesla sold its BTC in order to maximize its cash position due to the uncertainty as to “when the Covid lockdowns in China would alleviate.” He emphasized: “We are certainly open to increasing our bitcoin holdings in [the] future, so this should not be taken as some verdict on bitcoin.” He also mentioned that the company did not sell any DOGE.
Musk himself personally owns bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin. He tweeted in March last year that he still owns and will not sell any of the three cryptocurrencies. “I still own & won’t sell my bitcoin, ethereum or doge,” the billionaire wrote.
In Tesla’s earnings call with analysts Wednesday afternoon, Musk reiterated: “There’s going to be bumps along the way and we’ll probably have a pretty difficult recession this year, probably. I hope not, but probably.” While cautioning that “one can’t predict the short-term stock value,” the Tesla boss stressed:
But long term, I’m convinced that, Tesla will be the most valuable company on Earth.
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