Market Analysis Report (27 Apr 2021)

Tesla sold 10% of its bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2021 for $272 million. In February Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, which sent the price surging to all-time highs. Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn said that they invested in bitcoin to earn yield on its excess cash reserves in a low-interest-rate economy. Tesla customers now have the option to pay with bitcoin and Tesla will continue to accumulate this bitcoin.

In the earnings call Kirkhorn said “Year over year, positive impacts from volume growth, regulatory credit revenue growth, gross margin improvement driven by further product cost reductions and sale of Bitcoin ($101M positive impact, net of related impairments, in ‘Restructuring & Other’ line) were mainly offset by a lower ASP, increased SBC, additional supply chain costs, R&D investments and other items. Model S and Model X changeover costs negatively impacted both gross profit as well as R&D expenses.”

Source: https://www.cryptocompare.com/email-updates/daily/2021/apr/27/