- Tesla’s Q2 earnings filing reveals that the company has neither sold nor acquired any Bitcoin.
- In the filing, the company reported a $23 million Bitcoin-related impairment.
- CEO Elon Musk said Tesla would “most likely” resume Bitcoin payment.
The giant electric car maker Tesla has released filings for its Q2 earnings. As per the filing, Tesla has neither sold nor acquired any Bitcoin in the second quarter of 2021. Consequently, the firm now holds $1.3 billion in Bitcoin.
Earlier this year, in February, Tesla acquired $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and announced that the company would accept Bitcoin as payment. The news, which caught the attention of the entire world, acted as a strong catalyst and helped Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of around $65,000.
Nevertheless, in Q1, Tesla sold 10% of its bitcoin holdings for a total of $272 million. Following this, the company changed its course toward Bitcoin. In a brief tweet, CEO Elon Musk halted Bitcoin payments and criticized Bitcoin for its environmental effects. The news was the start of a sharp Bitcoin slump, which saw the leading cryptocurrency losing more than half its value in a matter of days.
Tesla Reported a $23M Bitcoin Impairment
While Tesla hasn’t sold any of its Bitcoin holdings in loss, it has to report Bitcoin impairment. That is because Bitcoin is considered an inventory asset.
Inventory assets are products or materials that a company purchases to sell at a later time for a profit. According to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), a firm should report the lowest price of its inventory assets once the prices enter the negative zone, even if the prices manage to soon recover.
Due to Bitcoin plunging below $30,000, Tesla reported a $23 million Bitcoin-related impairment. However, the company still did pretty good thanks to a surge in demand for electric vehicles.
Tesla’s Q2 total revenue grew 98% year-over-year, increasing from $6 billion to $11.9 billion. “In the second quarter of 2021, we broke new and notable records. We produced and delivered over 200,000 vehicles, achieved an operating margin of 11.0%, and exceeded $1B of GAAP net income for the first time in our history,” the filing read.
Prior to this, Elon Musk had affirmed in “The B Word” conference that Tesla hasn’t sold any additional Bitcoin. Musk further revealed that his private spaceflight company SpaceX also holds some Bitcoin and doesn’t intend to sell it.
Musk also asserted that Tesla would resume Bitcoin payments once the concern around Bitcoin energy usage is resolved while acknowledging that there have already been improvements. “I wanted a little bit more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50%,” he said.
