Tesla, the biggest electric vehicles manufacturer, has stated in the latest filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) that they may start accepting Bitcoin again for payments.
"In the first quarter of 2021, we invested and aggregate $1.50 billion. In addition, during the three months ended March 31, 2021, we accepted bitcoin as a form of payment for sales of certain of our products in specified regions, subject to applicable laws, and suspended this practice in May 2021," Tesla said before adding:
"We may in the future restart the practice of transacting in digital assets for our products and services. The fair market value of our bitcoin holdings as of September 30, 2021, was $1.83 billion. We believe in the long-term potential of digital assets both as an investment and also as a liquid alternative to cash." Stated in its third quarterly report filing with U.S. SEC.
Tesla earlier accepted Bitcoin as payment for electric vehicle purchases between January and March of this year. The move came as part of a broader bitcoin embrace from Tesla, with the firm also investing $1.5 billion worth of its treasury into BTC during the first quarter of 2021.
However, Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin after the firm faced criticism for supporting BTC despite perceptions that proof-of-work mining hurts the environment, while some accused him of manipulating the Bitcoin price with his influence.
Since then, Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla said that Tesla would consider resuming support for Bitcoin payments once at least half of the Bitcoin's network hash rate is powered by renewable energy.
With the inflow of miners coming into the United States after China clamped down on crypto miners due to huge energy consumed by bitcoin mining, those miners are now heavily investing in renewable energy with one bitcoin miner building a $250 million solar farm. Elon Must therefore now have political cover to start accepting bitcoin again.
Following Tesla's big move into Bitcoin earlier this year, the company sold 10% of its holdings in Q2, which boosted that quarter's earnings by $272 million.
According to Bitcointreasuries, Tesla currently holds around 43,200 BTC worth an estimated $2.7 billion at current prices. Even after selling 10% of its stash, the company has made almost $1.3 billion in unrealized profit from that investment.
Tesla is the second-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, according to the website, behind MicroStrategy, which holds around 114k BTC worth and an estimated $7.4 billion at current prices. Payments firm Square is third on the list holding around 8,000 bitcoins.
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