Tesla still holds over $200 million in Bitcoin

Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings remain unchanged from Q2 2022, or about $218 million worth, the documents released by the car manufacturer say ahead of its Q3 investor relations call. Despite the crypto bear market, Tesla remains one of the largest Bitcoin corporate holders.

As Tesla reported to the public on Oct. 19, the company says it still holds $218 million in Bitcoin. Tesla announced in July that it sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings, around $936 million at the time, reporting it continued to hold $222 million worth of “digital assets” on its balance sheet after the sale.

At the Q2 investor call, Musk told investors that the company sold its Bitcoin to free up cash as COVID lockdowns continue in China. “It was important for us to maximize our cash position, given the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns in China,” he detailed.

Still, Tesla remains one of the largest Bitcoin holders among publicly traded companies, following MicroStrategy with 130,000 BTC (around $2.48 billion) and Galaxy Digital Holdings with 16,400 BTC (around $313 million).

The latest Musk’s plan to buy Twitter and the subsequent legal battle over wanting to cancel the deal seems not to affect Tesla’s stance on crypto.

Back in February 2021, Tesla announced it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, a move that caused the price of Bitcoin to surge. Later in Q1 2022, the company trimmed its Bitcoin position by 10%, a sale that boosted that quarter’s earnings by $272 million. It had not bought or sold any more Bitcoin until Q2 2022.

Overall for Q3 2022, Tesla reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.05, beating the consensus of analyst estimates reported to FactSet of $1.00 a share, on revenue of $21.45 billion, shy of a $21.98 billion estimate. Shares of Tesla were falling just over 4% to $212.83 in after-hours trading on Oct. 19.