Elon Musk’s Tesla held onto its Bitcoin in Q4 despite market turbulence

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla refused to offload any more Bitcoin (BTC) during the latter half of 2022 despite selling off 75% of its holdings in the second quarter.

In its latest Q4 results report on Jan. 25, Tesla’s financials show it neither bought or sold any of its Bitcoin for the second quarter in a row. This was despite hefty market turmoil in November and December on the collapse of FTX. 

The documents show the company holds $184 million in digital assets as of Dec. 31, 2022, down from its $218 million in holdings from the quarter prior due to $34 million of impairment charges as Bitcoin’s price declined between the end of September and December last year.

Bitcoin was around $19,500 on Sep. 30, 2022, before dropping almost 15% to $16,600 by Dec. 31.

The EV manufacturer also held onto its Bitcoin through Q3 last year after selling 75% of its Bitcoin during the second quarter. The Q2 sale added $936 million in cash to Tesla’s books and the firm profited $64 million.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained at the time the sale was to “prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on a balance sheet.”

However, its Bitcoin holdings or take on Bitcoin was not discussed in Tesla’s most recent earnings call on Jan. 25. Based on estimates, Tesla holds about 9,720 BTC.

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Overall, Tesla recorded $5.7 billion in profits from $24.3 billion in revenues for Q4 with its gross margins coming in at the lowest level in five quarters. The company posted a total profit of $20.8 million for 2022 from $81.4 billion in revenues.

— Tesla (@Tesla) January 25, 2023

The revenue figure missed analyst estimates but its profits did better than consensus estimates.

Tesla’s share price was up slightly on the day, closing at a gain of nearly 0.40%. It continued to trade positively after hours, up nearly 4.6% at the time of writing according to Google Finance data.