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Tesla takes bitcoin

February 11, 2021.

Bitcoin.

© iStock.

In its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American federal organization that regulates and controls financial markets, Tesla says it invested 1.5 billion dollars of its cash assets in the cryptocurrency bitcoin. The electric car builder has also said that it will soon accept bitcoin as payment for its products, “subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis”. Elon Musk has often endorsed bitcoin on social networks, recently adding “#bitcoin” to his Twitter profile. News of Tesla’s investment drove the price of bitcoin to a record high of over USD43,000 on Monday, and sustained trading in the currency floated it even higher during the week, up to USD48,050 on Thursday. However, as we know, bitcoin is a particularly volatile currency; for example, just in the month of January, its price tumbled from USD42,000 to under USD30,000 USD. Tesla is the latest and largest company to announce an investment in bitcoin, but not the first. Insurance giant MassMutual, for example, purchased USD100 million of bitcoin for its general investment fund and acquired a USD5 million minority equity stake in institutional crypto manager NYDIG.

Tesla and bitcoin market values.

Ars Technica, Timothy B. Lee, “Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin, sending its price soaring.”

Axios, Dion Rabouin, “What Tesla’s bitcoin purchase means for the future of the dollar.”

Axios, Felix Salmon, “Why Tesla went into bitcoin.”

2021-02-11