Tesla Held All Its Bitcoin Through Crypto Market Turmoil

Tesla had diamond hands through the market reckoning of late last year, opting to hold onto all its bitcoin leading into 2023

article-image

Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com modified by Blockworks

share

After selling 75% of its bitcoin holdings in 2022, electric car manufacturer Tesla opted to hold its remaining supply through the fourth quarter, SEC filings show. 

In July 2022, Tesla reported it sold 75% of its bitcoin for $936 million in the second quarter. The sale marked the first change Tesla has made in its bitcoin holdings since the first quarter of 2021, when the company acquired some 43,200 bitcoins for $1.5 billion.  

“We are certainly open to increasing our bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be taken as some verdict on bitcoin,” CEO Elon Musk said during the company’s 2022 second quarter earnings call on July 20, 2022. “It’s just that we were concerned about overall liquidity for the company, given Covid shutdowns in China.”

In its fourth quarter earnings report, Tesla reported no losses on its remaining bitcoin holdings. 

Bitcoin’s price fell during the fourth quarter after remaining fairly stable during the second quarter. The selloff was largely driven by FTX’s collapse, but since the start of 2023, bitcoin has shown signs of a rebound and is up close to 40% year to date.

In October, during the company’s third quarter earnings call, Musk maintained Tesla is open to increasing its bitcoin exposure in the future. The CEO also said Tesla has held its dogecoin, currently the only cryptocurrency the electric car company accepts — although only for a limited selection of products, not including vehicles. 

“The prices of digital assets have been in the past and may continue to be highly volatile, including as a result of various associated risks and uncertainties,” Tesla’s third quarter report noted. “For example, the prevalence of such assets is a relatively recent trend, and their long-term adoption by investors, consumers and businesses is unpredictable.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Nillion_DeSci_Report_Template.png

Research

Nillion’s Monad Integration is poised to catalyze the next phase of DeSci’s evolution by eliminating key privacy bottlenecks. This synergy allows researchers, institutions, and DAOs to exchange sensitive data and insights securely while managing governance and payments onchain.

article-image

Halliday CEO Griffin Dunaif said that there may be smaller margins on stablecoins, but lots of potential in the services around them

article-image

Discounted cash flow is as close as you can get to a fundamental truth in the art of financial valuation

article-image

Solana’s focus remains on fundamentals: stable usage, high yields, and expanding infrastructure

article-image

While new XRP futures ETFs are set to launch, the SEC could wait several months to greenlight more spot offerings

article-image

Bitcoin may have traded like a safe haven asset Wednesday, but analysts warn the trend may not last

article-image

The pixelated game Craft World is set in a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs live with humans