A brief note from an investment firm reveals that Tesla made more from its Bitcoin investment in January 2021 than from all of its 2020 car sales.
This emerges from a brief note to an analysis by Wedbush. The company is a private US investment firm based in Los Angeles. Wedbush manages approximately $ 2.4 billion in capital for its 6,000 customers.
The electric cars and Bitcoin
Tesla announced in early February that it had bought Bitcoin (BTC) for $ 1.5 billion in January 2021. This corresponds to about 8 percent of the company’s money supply. At the same time, the company announced that it would also accept Bitcoin as a means of payment for its products in the future. After the announcement became known, the Bitcoin price rose by 8.5%.
With its purchase, Tesla owns approximately 0.2% of all existing Bitcoin.
In his communication to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla stated that they bought Bitcoin in order to „diversify and maximize the return on our money portfolio more flexibly“.
Tesla profits from electric cars and Bitcoin
For the fiscal year 2020, Tesla has „only“ reported a profit of 721 million USD with regard to its electric cars . Revenue for that period was $ 31.5 billion.
Wedbush in its analytical note estimates that Tesla has made about $ 1 billion in profit on its $ 1.5 billion investment to date. It is not known whether Tesla has at least partially realized this profit, i.e. sold Bitcoin. Based on these numbers, Tesla would have made around USD 279 million more from Bitcoin within a month than from car sales.
Various observers criticized Tesla’s approach. Elon Musk tweeted on February 18:
Tesla’s approach does not directly reflect my opinion. Holding some Bitcoin, which is simply a less stupid form of liquidity than money, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company.
He further wrote in another tweet:
To be clear: I am * not * an investor, I am an engineer. I don’t even own stocks, except Tesla’s.
But if fiat money has negative real interest rates, just a fool wouldn’t look for anything else. Bitcoin is almost as nonsense as fiat money.
The important word is: „almost“.
Bitcoin still on rocket course
More and more large financial institutions are currently getting into Bitcoin, which is driving the price to new all-time highs. If you consider that these are probably just the tender beginnings, the Bitcoin HODLers will be happy.