Tesla held $2. 48 billion in bitcoins at the end of the first quarter, according to corporate documents to the SEC in the first quarter.
The electric vehicle manufacturer first bought bitcoins worth $1. 5 billion in January and now accepts cryptocurrencies as a payment method for its products. It is not known whether Tesla won bitcoins for its products in the first quarter.
Bitcoin jumped more than one hundred percent in the first 3 months of 2021, meaning Tesla is sitting on significant un realized gains with its cryptographic position.
The CEO said in a tweet responding to David Portnoy’s complaint about bitcoin as a “pump and download” system: “. . . I haven’t sold any of my bitcoins. Tesla has sold 10% of its assets basically to get Bitcoin liquidity as an option to keep money on the balance sheet. “
Tesla owned 41953 bitcoins at the end of the first quarter, over the final cryptocurrency value of $59114 on March 31.
Bitcoin established a volatile trading trajectory in April, with the cryptocurrency reaching a record of nearly $65,000 before falling more than 20% to less than $50,000. Since then, Bitcoin has recovered some of its losses and is quoted at $55180 on Wednesday morning.