Tesla's $ 1.5 billion bitcoin investment not only made headlines, it also made the company more profitable than its car sales last year, according to a Times of London report.
On Friday, the cryptocurrency broke through the $ 55,000 level, raising its market cap above $ 1 trillion. This means that if Tesla has the same amount of Bitcoin as on January 31, it has made a paper profit of around $ 930 million since January. That's nearly 30% more than its $ 721 million in EV revenue, according to the report.
Bitcoin's historic rally has been a source of debate in the investment community, with many worries that its 546% year-over-year gains (according to CoinDesk data) may have created a bubble and UBS signaling that the 'asset might be' worthless'.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has defended the investment. "Having some Bitcoin, which is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash, is adventurous enough for an S&P500 company," Musk tweeted Thursday, responding to a Bloomberg interview with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Tesla's initial bitcoin investment was disclosed in its annual 10k deposit on February 8, showing that it had purchased $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in January. The company also announced that it plans to start accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method in the near future, according to a CNBC report.
Tesla shares rose 2% on the news, with bitcoin also hitting record highs of $ 44,795.20.
Although JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called it a "fraud" in 2017, as CNBC reports, institutional investors are starting to take notice of the cryptocurrency. Even JPMorgan is now touting a case for bitcoin's price to hit $ 146,000, but a recent memo released by the company suggested that Bitcoin was only worth $ 25,000 with current volatility levels this high.
BNY Mellon, America's oldest bank, has also started to venture into Bitcoin, the WSJ reported.
All eyes are now on the lookout for the next institutional investor in cryptocurrency.
"If you are a company CEO and thinking about adding #Bitcoin to your balance sheet you still have the opportunity to be an early adopter. But not for long," tweeted Tyler Winklevoss, the billionaire and co-founder of the Gemini crypto exchange.
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