During the first quarter of 2021, the company put more than $1.5 billion into the coin.
In a regulatory filing, Tesla said that it lost $170 million on its investment in Bitcoin during the first nine months of this year. It also said that it made about $64 million by turning some of the Bitcoin it owned into fiat money, which is not backed by a commodity like gold or silver.
During Q2 2022, the electric car company sold $936 million in Bitcoin. This was reportedly something Musk ordered to try to get cash back because Tesla’s China market was losing money because of the pandemic. In January 2021, Tesla first put $1.5 billion into BTC.
Tesla’s Q3 2022 earnings report shows that the company still has about $2.18 million in BTC.
“Accounting rules say that digital assets are intangible assets with an indefinite life. So, if their fair values drop below our carrying values for such assets at any time after we bought them, we will have to pay impairment charges. However, we can’t make upward adjustments for market price increases until we sell the assets “In its 10-Q filing on Monday, Tesla said.
“For any digital assets we own now or will own in the future, these charges could hurt our profits in the periods when these impairments happen, even if the overall market value of these assets goes up,” they said.
The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise, since the crypto world as a whole has taken a huge hit this year in what has been called the “Crypto Winter” by many.
From its all-time high of $68,789.63 in November of last year, Bitcoin has dropped by 72%, according to the most recent data released on Monday.
Still, Tesla had a good third quarter, even though it lost money on BTC. It made $3.33 billion in net income, which is more than double what it made at the same time last year.
During the Q3 call, Musk was asked if he would think about putting all of his companies, like Tesla and maybe even Twitter, under one stock to make a “super company.”
“I’m not sure what overlap there is. It’s not 0, but I think we’re getting close. It doesn’t worry me, “Musk had to say about the idea.
As of Monday morning, Tesla’s stock was down just over 40% in a year.