Elon Musk has revealed that Tesla has sold most of its Bitcoin. (Getty/Rex/AP)
Tesla has sold most of its cryptocurrency holdings after diving into and buying $1.5 billion (£1.09 billion) worth of Bitcoin in February 2021.
Since then, Bitcoin’s value has fallen, dropping more than 50% this year.
The electric car company revealed it sold $936 million (£782 million) worth of Bitcoin in the second quarter.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk cited concerns about his company’s “general liquidity” as the reason for the sale.
During Tesla’s earnings call, Musk said the main reason for the sale was uncertainty over China’s Covid-19 lockdowns, which have created manufacturing challenges for the company.
“It was important for us to maximize our cash position,” Musk said.
“We are certainly open to increasing our Bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be taken as a judgment on Bitcoin. We were just concerned about the company’s overall liquidity.”
Musk has been an outspoken advocate of cryptocurrencies for years. His frequent statements about the future of crypto and revelations about his ownership of digital assets often drive up the price of assets such as Dogecoin and Bitcoin.
Following the news that Tesla freed itself from Bitcoin, the digital currency recovered after an initial slump.
Bitcoin slumped and recovered after the news – but it’s still fallen in value a long way this year. (Credit: Reuters)
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was last up 1.04% to $23,494.57, after dropping a whopping 0.5% to $23,268.92 on the news.
Musk added that Tesla has not sold any of its Dogecoin, the meme-based cryptocurrency he has touted.
Tesla accepted Bitcoin as payment for less than two months before shutting down in May 2021.
Musk has said the company could resume Bitcoin adoption once it conducts due diligence on Bitcoin’s amount renewable energy needed to mine the currency.
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