Tesla’s filing with the SEC show that the carmaker has bitcoins valued nearly $2 billion.
The electric carmaker, Tesla has reported that it owns bitcoins valued at $1.99 billion. In a Reuters report seen today, February 7, 2021, the carmaker stated that this is the value of its coins at the end of the Q4 of 2021.
This is part of the filing made by the company following a subpoena that was served to the corporation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the report, the subpoena emanated from the SEC after Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, triggered a selloff of the company’s stocks after a tweet that asked his followers if he should sell 10% of his stocks. Since then, the stock of the company has not recovered to the value before the tweet.
According to the SEC, the action of Musk violates a 2018 agreement in which the company agreed to vet tweets made by its CEO to ensure that it doesn’t have undue influence on the market.
A 2018 settlement with the SEC explicitly stated that Musk’s tweets should be approved by Tesla lawyers to avoid undue influence on the market which could be manipulated such as the sell-off triggered by Musk’s tweets.
Musk, who is very active on Twitter is known to shill projects and tokens that are of interest to him.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 49 Starlink satellites to orbit → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK https://t.co/BO1JrHNzXR
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 3, 2022
The filing shows that the value of BTC holdings by December 31, 2021 was $1.99 billion. The company had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin last year and reported an impairment of $101 million due to the drop in the value of the asset after the purchase. Part of the company’s holdings were sold last March, giving Tesla a profit of $128 million.
