US Senator Ted Cruz Reveals Why Interest In Bitcoin

Previously, electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) did not buy or sell any bitcoins in the first quarter of 2023, the company reported in its earnings release on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.

Reporting from Coindesk, Friday (21/4/2023), the value of digital assets held by Elon Musk’s company at the end of the quarter was USD 184 million or the equivalent of IDR 2.7 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 14,972 per US dollar), flat from the fourth quarter 2022.

Valuations remained flat even as bitcoin (BTC) rose to around USD 28,500 or equivalent to Rp. 426.7 million at the end of the first quarter from USD 16,500 or equivalent to Rp. 247 million three months. Before, because current accounting rules do not allow those profits to be reserved.

Tesla also did not change the number of bitcoins it held for the three consecutive quarters.

For the first quarter, Tesla reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 85 cents, in line with a consensus analyst estimate of 85 cents, according to FactSet. Tesla’s revenue came to USD 23.33 billion or the equivalent of IDR 349.2 trillion less than the expected USD 23.6 billion or IDR 353.2 trillion.

Tesla and Bitcoins

Tesla joined the ranks of leading cryptocurrency holding companies when it revealed it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in February 2021, pushing the price of BTC to new record highs at the time.

The company sold 10 percent of its Bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2021 to prove Bitcoin’s liquidity as an alternative to keeping cash on its balance sheet, with its next significant sale coming in the second quarter of 2022 when Tesla revealed it had sold 75 percent of its Bitcoin holdings.