Despite the panic last week over Tesla announcing that it sold 75% of its Bitcoin, the company reports holding $222 million worth of “digital assets” on its balance sheet as of the end of June.
The new details were in the company’s quarterly report, which it filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday morning.
It’s usually the case that a company will put out a press release and host an earnings call a few days before submitting its full earnings report with the SEC. That’s why the news about Tesla selling 75%, or $936 million, worth of Bitcoin on Wednesday was out before the company had released more details.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on to say during the company’s earning call on Wednesday that the company sold its Bitcoin to free up cash as COVID lockdowns continue in China.
"The reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain when the COVID lockdowns in China would alleviate," Musk said on last week’s call. "So it was important for us to maximize our cash position, given the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns in China."
Bitcoin lost 2.5% from its share price in the hour after the announcement, dropping to $23,078.18 on Wednesday. On Monday afternoon, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had slipped further and was trading at $21,969.29 per BTC, according to CoinMarketCap.
Meanwhile, it seems Tesla’s shareholders liked the news about the company selling a huge portion of its Bitcoin. TSLA shares went from $742.50 at market close on Wednesday, ahead of the announcement, and have increased 9% to $812.16 as of Monday afternoon. That’s the highest TSLA shares have been since early May, according to Yahoo Finance.