The electric car maker said it has dumped 75% of its bitcoin, which was worth about $2 billion at the end of 2021.
It is thus withdrawing from the cryptocurrency at a time when its value has plummeted, with a drop of more than 50% this year.
Tesla said it bought traditional currencies with the $936 million it made from selling bitcoin.
Tesla boss Elon Musk has been among the cryptocurrency’s most high-profile advocates, and his social media pronouncements have often sparked frenetic trading activity.
Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin, unveiled in February 2021, led to a sharp rise in demand for the currency.
The price of the volatile cryptocurrency soared last year to almost $70,000 in November before crashing.
A bitcoin is now traded for less than $25,000
Tesla announced the sale of its cryptocurrencies as part of its usual quarterly update. He said that bitcoin is one of the factors that hurt its performance in the last three months.
Last year, Tesla stopped accepting bitcoin as payment currency for its cars, citing concerns about the climate impact of energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining.
At the time, however, Musk said on social media that the company would not sell the bitcoin it owned.
Another broken Musk promise
Analysis by James Clayton, North America Technology Correspondent
Last year, Elon Musk took to Twitter to explain Tesla’s position on bitcoin.
“Tesla will not sell any bitcoin.” It sounds pretty emphatic.
However, the statements of the richest man in the world should be taken more than with tweezers.
We now know that a year after that tweet, Tesla sold most of his bitcoin.
Do you see a pattern here?
Whether it’s promises of self-driving car technology or takeover announcements from social media companies, Musk’s pronouncements don’t always come to fruition.
He doesn’t seem to have hurt his professional career, so far.
But this is another reminder that his words, which can move markets, are not set in stone.
The decision is further bad news for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Musk is a proponent of them and helped launch bitcoin and dogecoin.
Musk said this is not a position on bitcoin, but rather a need for cash.
However, he also called cryptocurrencies “a supporting actor of a supporting role.” Not exactly a thunderous endorsement.
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On Wednesday, Tesla reported higher-than-expected earnings for the months of April, May and June.
The company had an adjusted profit of $2.27 per share in the quarter, beating analyst estimates.
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