The American electric car manufacturer's accounting sheets show no changes to Bitcoin investments, despite a surge in the cryptocurrency's value.
On April 19, Tesla released its Q1 report for 2023, revealing that the company had not made any changes to its Bitcoin holdings since the last Q4 report of 2022. This marks the third consecutive quarter that Tesla has maintained its BTC holdings without buying or selling any. In February 2021, Tesla entered the crypto market by purchasing $1.2 billion worth of BTC, but sold 75% of it in July 2022, generating $936 million in cash reserves for the company.
As of the Q1 report, Tesla held 11,950 BTC, which was valued at over $348 million. Interestingly, the report indicated that the value of Tesla's BTC holdings remained the same as the previous quarter, despite the surge in the coin's price. The Q4 2022 report had placed the value of Tesla's BTC assets at $184 million, and this number was projected to remain the same for this quarter, due to accounting rules that classify BTC holdings as intangible assets-goodwill. As a result, quarterly impairment analysis for losses will be registered, but gains will only be registered if the BTC is sold.
Although Tesla had a more pro-Bitcoin stance before the 2022 bear market and had plans to add BTC as a payment option, the plan was eventually abandoned due to environmental concerns surrounding BTC mining. The company's CEO, Elon Musk, cited these concerns as the reason behind the decision.