Tesla Likely Still Owns $780 Million in Bitcoin Despite Recent Moves: Arkham
Date: 2024-10-23 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
Electric car maker Tesla likely still owns its entire $780 million cryptocurrency stake despite moving all of the funds to anonymous wallets on October 15, according to analytics firm Arkham.
“We believe that the Tesla wallet moves we reported last week were simply wallet rotations and that the Bitcoin remains under the control of the company,” Arkham Intelligence said on October 22 on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Tesla split 11,509 Bitcoin into seven different wallets, each containing between 1,100 and 2,200 BTC. The largest amounts were transferred to wallets with the addresses "1Fnhp" and "1LERL", which received $142.2 million and $128.1 million, respectively.
The movement of such large sums raised concerns among investors and social media users about a possible sale of assets and a market decline. However, according to Arkham, after October 15, none of these wallets made further transactions with bitcoins.
Amid these events, the price of bitcoin did not suffer, but, on the contrary, rose by 5% - from the moment of Tesla's movements to $69,220 as of October 21, according to CoinGecko. However, the value of the cryptocurrency later fell by 2.3%, to $67,600.
The reason for such movements is still unclear. Some analysts suggest that the funds could have been transferred to custodian accounts to secure a loan that Tesla may be planning to obtain using its bitcoin assets as collateral.
Tesla currently uses Coinbase Prime Custody to store its bitcoin. Company officials may reveal further plans for its crypto holdings during its third-quarter earnings call after the market closes on October 23.
If Arkham’s data is accurate, Tesla remains the fourth-largest corporate holder of bitcoin in the world, behind only MicroStrategy and mining firms Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms.
Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX also holds 8,285 bitcoin worth $560 million, making it the seventh-largest private holder of bitcoin.
Tesla first acquired bitcoin in February 2021, buying $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. In March of that year, the company temporarily accepted bitcoin as payment for its cars, but soon reversed that decision.
