Main Highlights:
- Last quarter, Elon Musk’s Tesla liquidated 75% of its bitcoin holdings.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also attempting to back out of his $44 billion bid to acquire Twitter.
- Both decisions were influenced by falling house values and a bleak economic outlook.
Elon Musk, who is now attempting to back out of his ownership of Twitter, announced on Wednesday that Tesla handed up 75% of his bitcoin holdings last quarter. The Mercurial Tech millionaire has provided explanations, but it appears that decreasing property prices and a grim economic backdrop influenced both moves.
Tesla Inc. liquidated a major portion of its Bitcoin holdings, helping to legitimise the world’s largest electronic currency.
“As of the end of the second quarter, we have converted about 75% of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat cash,” Tesla wrote in a shareholder letter included with the company’s financial report. “In the second quarter, conversions contributed $936 million to our balance sheet.”
The electric-car company said in February 2021 that it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and had sold 10% of its share the following April. Tesla’s digital assets have decreased to $218 million, and a Bitcoin impairment has harmed the company’s second-quarter profits.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated on the results conference call that the business traded Bitcoin to optimise its cash position because to the uncertainties surrounding the Covid shutdowns. He said that the sale should not be seen as “some sort of Bitcoin conclusion.”
Musk has accused Twitter of grossly underestimating the amount of bots on its network, refusing to share the data needed to assess the scope of the problem, and allowing key executives to depart because they attempted to acquire social media.
Twitter is suing Musk to enforce the binding merger deal he signed in April, and the two parties are expected to go to court within months.
Meanwhile, Musk announced that Tesla has paid $936 million in bitcoin to strengthen its cash reserves while the COVID-19 lockout continued to hamper its Shanghai manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Musk announced that Tesla has paid $936 million in bitcoin to strengthen its cash reserves while the COVID-19 lockout continued to hamper its Shanghai manufacturing. While Tesla’s CEO stated that his electric-vehicle business has not sold any of its Dogecoin, he also stated that Tesla’s priority is to move the globe toward sustainable energy sources, and that cryptocurrencies are “for sideshows.”
Sideshow” and “Nothing We Do”. Think a lot.”
Perhaps Musk has soured his Twitter arrangement because he is concerned about his bots, while declaring their removal a crucial component of his strategy to revitalise the company. Perhaps he anticipated a cash crunch at Tesla and hastened to convert his bitcoin to dollars, despite the fact that his company’s operational cash flow increased 11 percent year over year to $2.4 billion, and it concluded the quarter with more than $18 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
Nonetheless, it’s possible to envisage a 22% decline in Twitter price since Musk initially announced a stake in the firm in early April, and a 32% decrease in Tesla shares during the same period, as Musk’s thinking spreads. After all, his bid for Twitter currently represents a 30% premium to his current market worth, and purchasing it would consume a larger portion of his fortune than the current drop in the value of his Tesla shares.
Meanwhile, bitcoin has fallen by about a third since Tesla first purchased it in early 2021, and has fallen by nearly 57 percent in the last quarter alone. While Musk stated that Tesla is prepared to raise its bitcoin holdings in the future and that the settlement should not be seen as a guarantee.
This year’s drop in Tesla, Twitter, and Bitcoin is certainly tied to the US economic outlook. Inflation has just reached a 40-year high, pushing the Federal Reserve to boost interest rates and decrease its balance sheets. Many analysts are predicting sluggish consumer demand, pressure on company profitability, and a likely recession as a result of increasing food, gasoline, and housing expenses.
Indeed, Musk stated last month that a recession was “inevitable” at some time in the future, most likely in the near term. The caustic CEO revealed an approximately 10% decrease in Tesla’s personnel in three months or more, citing the company’s excessive recruiting in several sectors.
Musk may have pushed to abandon his Twitter acquisition and slashed Tesla’s bitcoin hide for the same reasons he said. However, it is worth noting that he proposed to acquire Twitter and invest in bitcoin during a period when asset values were skyrocketing, market attitude was significantly more speculative and irresponsible, and the economic outlook was bright.
Now that the prices of Tesla, Twitter, and bitcoin are falling and a recession is on the horizon, Musk may take a step back and try to reverse some of his reckless acts as a bleak reality sets in.
