According to its 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Tesla (TSLA) made a profit of $64 million from the sale of 75% of its bitcoin (BTC) assets, which brought in $936 million in the second quarter. It also lost $170 million on the holdings it still had.
The filing gave more details about Tesla’s information, and statements in its quarterly earnings report and earnings call on Wednesday.
During the earnings call, Zach Kirkhorn, the Chief Financial Officer of Tesla, said
”The company “converted a majority of our bitcoin holdings to fiat for a realized gain, offset by impairment charges on the remainder of our holdings, netting a $106 million cost to the [Profit and Loss Statement] included within restructuring and other.”
In its 10-Q, released Monday, Tesla said it had a $170 million impairment charge and a $64 million gain in the six months leading up to June 30. Because it didn’t add to or reduce any of its holdings in the first quarter and didn’t take an impairment charge, all of those things must have happened in the second quarter.
Tesla’s history with Bitcoin
Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoins for the first time in the first quarter of 2021, but it didn’t say how much they usually cost. Later in that first quarter, the company sold 10 percent of its bitcoins, which added $272 million to its earnings. It hadn’t added to or taken away from its holdings until the most recent quarter. CEO Elon Musk said this was done to raise cash because COVID-19 lockdowns in China, one of its biggest markets, prevented it from selling in that country.
The company didn’t say how much it sold its bitcoin in the second quarter. Still, a rough calculation shows that the average price would be around $29,000 per bitcoin. This helped Tesla avoid a much bigger impairment charge. Bitcoin cost about $18,700 at the end of the second quarter.
