Elon Musk’s Tesla Retains $218 Million BTC Holdings for 2022 Third Quarter

Despite the ongoing bear market sentiment shadowing the crypto sector, Elon Musk’s Tesla has retained its Bitcoin holdings in the third quarter of 2022 that ended in September. As per Tesla’s Q3 report released earlier this week, the company holds an estimate of $218 million (roughly Rs. 1,802 crore) in ‘digital assets’. In terms of Bitcoin, the EV company is projected to hold around 9,720 Bitcoin units. In recent months, Bitcoin has failed to show any impressive sign of growth, having retained its value close to the $20,000 mark (roughly Rs. 16.5 lakh).

Tesla has reported no dips in the value of its BTC holdings, the company said in its Q3 2022 earnings report.

The decision of retaining Bitcoin holdings in this last quarter for Tesla is totally different from what the company did in the second quarter of 2022, between April and June.

At the time, the most valued electric vehicle company in the world had sold 75 percent of its Bitcoin. As per Musk, that decision was taken to tackle liquidity concerns in the backdrop of the COVID-19 caused industrial slump.

Tesla had managed to add $956 million (roughly Rs. 7,905 crore) in cash by selling of this large chunk of its BTC in Q2 2022.

For the third quarter however, Tesla said it has clocked $3.3 billion (roughly Rs. 27,306 crore) attaining revenues of $21.45 billion (roughly Rs. 1,77,493 crore).

Back in July, Tesla said it recorded a $170 million (roughly Rs. 1,360 crore) impairment charge against the carrying value of its Bitcoin holdings for the first six months of the year, as well as gains of $64 million (roughly Rs. 512 crore) from certain sales of its Bitcoin holdings in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The phrase ‘impairment charge’ is a term used to account for an asset that is no longer as valuable as may have once been. When it purchased its Bitcoin last year, Tesla said it would examine its BTC holdings every quarter to check for impairments.