Elon Musk’s Tesla held onto its Bitcoin in Q4 despite market turbulence

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Cointelegraph By Jesse Coghlan
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Electric car maker Tesla has refused to offload more Bitcoin (BTC) during the latter half of 2022 despite selling 75% of its holdings in the second quarter.

In its latest Q4 results report on January 25, Tesla’s financials show that it neither bought nor sold any of its Bitcoin for the second quarter in a row. This was despite strong market turmoil in November and December over the collapse of FTX.

The filings show the company owns $184 million in digital assets as of Dec. 31, 2022, down from its $218 million in assets the previous quarter due to $34 million in impairment charges as the price of Bitcoin declined between the end of September and December of last year. .

Bitcoin was around $19,500 on September 30, 2022, before falling nearly 15% to $16,600 by December 31.

The EV manufacturer also held onto its Bitcoin through Q3 last year after selling 75% of its Bitcoin during the second quarter. The Q2 sales added $936 million in cash to Tesla’s books and the company made a profit of $64 million.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained at the time that the sale was to “demonstrate the liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to keeping cash on the balance sheet.”

However, its Bitcoin holdings or take on Bitcoin were not discussed in Tesla’s most recent earnings to call January 25. Based on ratingsTesla holds around 9,720 BTC.

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Overall, Tesla recorded $5.7 billion in profits on $24.3 billion in revenue for Q4 with its gross margins coming in at the lowest level in five quarters. The company posted a total profit of $20.8 million for 2022 from $81.4 billion in revenues.

The revenue figure missed analyst estimates, but its profits did better than consensus estimates.

Tesla’s share price rose slightly on the day, closing at a gain of nearly 0.40%. It continued to trade positively after hours, up to almost 4.6% at the time of writing according to Google Finance. data.