Tesla, the electric car maker, sold $272 million of its bitcoin holdings after putting it on its balance sheet earlier this year. Its earnings report for the first quarter of 2021 shows the amount under "Digital Asset Sales Revenue."
Tesla first bought $1.5 billion of BTC in February, according to an SEC filing. The crypto exchange Coinbase facilitated the buying. Based on the price of the Feb. 8 transaction, the $272 million deal would leave at least $1.33 billion in BTC on Tesla's balance sheet. At this point, the number would be higher to account for price changes, but the filing rules don't allow Tesla to adjust that number to the upside.
Last month, the company also announced that it would accept bitcoin as payment. Musk said Tesla would keep the payments as digital assets and forgo converting them into legal tender.
Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn said on Tesla's earnings call: "Tesla is watching how the market is developing and listening to customers, but from a company capital standpoint, we feel very good about having so much liquidity in the Bitcoin market." Kirkhorn also added that Tesla "has long believed in the value of bitcoin, so we intend to hold our long-term assets and continue to accumulate bitcoin from customers' transactions as they purchase vehicles."