Tesla whizzes with bitcoins
Elon Musk pushes Tesla to invest $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin. All the details
Tesla invests in bitcoin, to maximize and diversify its returns. The electric car company could also become the first in the world to accept payments with virtual currencies.
The news, recently released, has already made the value of bitcoins skyrocket to almost $ 44,000.
TESLA INVESTS IN BITCOIN
Let's start with the facts. Tesla, as revealed by the SEC, or the American Consob, has invested 1.5 billion dollars in bitcoin. The auto maker's decision comes after the company, founded and led by Elon Musk , changed its investment policy last month to "diversify and maximize" returns on its cash.
AN INVESTMENT EQUAL TO 8%
The investment, explains the Financial Times , "still represents about 8% of the 19.4 billion dollars that (Tesla, ed ) held in cash and liquid assets at the end of December, according to the document". The auto house, the financial newspaper recalls, has been short of money for years.
THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE INVESTMENT
The automaker is the latest consumer-facing company to venture into the cryptocurrency markets, after PayPal. Cryptocurrencies are scary due to very high volatility and frequent hacking and fraud.
Tesla is also aware of this: “We believe that our bitcoin holdings are highly liquid. However, digital assets can be subject to volatile market prices, which could be unfavorable when we want or need to liquidate them, ”the auto maker reported, as reported by the Financial Times.
TOWARDS BITCOIN PAYMENTS?
In addition to changing its investment policy, Tesla also announced that it may soon change its payments policy as well, accepting bitcoin for the sale of its products.
THE BITCOIN SPLITS
The news caused the price of the cryptocurrency to skyrocket by 10% to a new record of over $ 44,000. Bitcoin is worth over 50% since the beginning of the year.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF TESLA'S MOVE
On the other hand, Tesla's move could have repercussions on the market. This "is a potential revolutionary move for using bitcoin from a transactional perspective," said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Tesla's announcement, in fact, could prompt other companies to make similar decisions. "Investors and other industry observers will be watching this closely to see if other companies follow Tesla's lead on this crypto path."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tesla-sfreccia-con-i-bitcoin/ on Mon, 08 Feb 2021 15:43:30 +0000.