Tesla Has Already Sold 10% of Its Bitcoin

Newsweek writes:

Elon Musk has hit back at a critic who claimed he pumped and dumped Bitcoin to 'make a fortune' after Tesla reported first quarter earnings that surpassed market expectations... The company appears to have sold 10 percent of its Bitcoin portfolio in the first quarter, which it said had a 'positive impact' of $101 million on revenues.

On Monday, Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, called out Musk, CEO of Tesla, on the Bitcoin sale. He tweeted: 'So am I understanding this correctly? Elon Musk buys Bitcoin. Then he pumps it. It goes up. Then he dumps it and makes a fortune.' Musk replied: '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.'

In a transcript of the Q1 2021 earnings call posted by the Motley Fool, Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said the company intends to hold its Bitcoin investment long-term and called it 'a good place to place some of our cash that's not immediately being used for daily operations'.

Bitcoin was worth roughly $40,000 in early February at the time Tesla's $1.5 billion investment was reported.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.