Elon Musk’s Tesla Just Sold Some of Its Bitcoins: Find Out Why

The Tesla CEO responded to a tweet, sharing that the company had dumped the cryptocurrency to prove liquidity of the cryptocurrency.

By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 27 April 2021 11:57 IST

Elon Musk’s Tesla Just Sold Some of Its Bitcoins: Find Out Why

In March, the value of Bitcoin rose to a then all-time high of $60,000 (roughly Rs. 45 lakhs)

Highlights

Elon Musk has been a big supporter of Bitcoin as well as Dogecoin
His tweets have sent the value of these two cryptocurrencies soaring
Tesla invested $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 11,200 crores) in Bitcoin

Elon Musk said Tesla had sold 10 percent of its Bitcoin holdings to demonstrate the cryptocurrency's liquidity on balance sheet, while he has retained his personal Bitcoin investment. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was responding to a tweet by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who questioned Musk's sale of Bitcoins and said that he had bought the cryptocurrency and made a fortune by selling it a higher price. Portnoy's tweet came after Tesla stated in its first-quarter earnings report on Monday that it had sold $272 million (roughly Rs. 2,030 crores) worth of its Bitcoin holdings.

Here's how the exchange on Twitter between Portnoy and Musk unfolded. In response to Portnoy's question if he was “understanding this correctly”, that Musk “buys #bitcoin. Then he pumps it. It goes up. Then he dumps it and makes a fortune”, the Tesla CEO tweeted, “No, you do not. I have not sold any of my Bitcoin. Tesla sold 10 percent of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.”

No, you do not. I have not sold any of my Bitcoin. Tesla sold 10% of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021

Elon Musk has been a big supporter of Bitcoin as well as Dogecoin. Time and again, his tweets have sent the value of these two cryptocurrencies soaring. While in February, a series of tweets by Musk, hailing Dogecoin, took the value of the meme-based cryptocurrency to wild levels, in March the value of Bitcoin rose to a then all-time high of $60,000 (roughly Rs. 45 lakhs) after he announced that Tesla would accept the cryptocurrency as a mode of payment.

You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

A month ago, in February, the company had also invested $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 11,200 crores) in Bitcoin.

Before that, in January, the value of Bitcoin surged after Musk added the hashtag #bitcoin to his Twitter bio, and also sent out a cryptic tweet, saying, “In retrospect, it was inevitable.”

In retrospect, it was inevitable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2021

However, of late, the value of both these cryptocurrencies have slumped. On Tuesday (at the time of writing), the value of Bitcoin was $53,474.20 (roughly Rs. 40 lakhs). The cryptocurrency had hit an all-time high of $64,804.72 (roughly Rs. 48 lakhs) on April 9.

Similarly, Dogecoin's crash began on April 21, a day after fans of the cryptocurrency celebrated Doge Day. At the time of writing, Dogecoin's price was around $0.266308 (roughly Rs. 20). On April 16, the value of the cryptocurrency had soared to an all-time high of $0.45 (roughly Rs. 35).

We dive into all things Apple — iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV 4K, and AirTag — this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Cryptocurrency Prices across Indian exchanges

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.