Elon Musk’s Tesla offloads 75% of Bitcoin holdings

Global carmaker Tesla, which had been a major advocate of cryptocurrency, has reportedly offloaded 75 per cent of its Bitcoins worth $2 billion by the end of 2021.

Reports says the company is moving away from investing in crypto amid a crash in the value of cryptocurrencies.

The $2 billion worth of Bitcoins have been converted into fiat currency, adding $963 million to Tesla Inc’s balance sheet, according to its shareholder letter on the second-quarter earnings.

Also read: Bitcoin plunges 70%, triggers panic in crypto world

According to reports, Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a call with analysts, however, said that the sell-off shouldn’t be taken as verdict on Bitcoin, as it was done due to uncertainty on the lifting of COVID lockdowns in China and the need for liquid cash.

“It’s just that we were concerned about the overall liquidity of the company given the COVID shutdowns in China,” he was quoted as telling analysts.

A self-proclaimed fan of cryptocurrency, Musk last year had batted in favour of making Dogecoin a currency of payment for premium accounts.

While speaking at a Bitcoin conference last year, he had said that the three things he owned besides Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. were Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin.

“If the price of Bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump. I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling…I would like to see Bitcoin succeed,” he had said.

Musk for a brief period also allowed buyers to pay for their cars using cryptocurrency. He had also revealed that his other company SpaceX has also invested in Bitcoin.

In February last year, Tesla revealed that it had invested $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, following a huge demand for the cryptocurrency. It later said that it sold 10 per cent of its stake in April.

At that time, Musk, however, had said that Tesla wouldn’t sell its Bitcoins.

Also read: Cryptic trend: Why Bitcoin plummeted as Russia invaded Ukraine

The company recently said that its digital assets have come down to $218 million and the drop in Bitcoin valuation affected its profitability in the second quarter.

The value of cryptocurrency had risen to $69,000 in November last year before crashing.