The news that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sold $373 million worth of Bitcoin is contributing to the wobble of the cryptocurrency market.
“SpaceX owned Bitcoin with a total value of 373 million USԀ in 2021 and last year, but sold all of it,” WSJ reported on August 17.
This information comes after the WSJ reviewed internal financial documents of SpaceX. The data shows the company spending $5.4 billiоn in 2021 and $5.2 billiоn in 2022 “to purchаse property and equipment, in addition to research and development costs,” including Bitcoin. However, it is unclear whether this amount has anything to do with the amount of Bitcoin that Tesla bought for $1.5 billiоn in 2021.
Elon Musk. Photo: Reuters
After the WSJ’s information , combined with the minutes of the July meeting on inflation in the US announced by the US Federal Reserve (FED) on August 17, the cryptocurrency market immediately fluctuated. Bitcoin price fell from more than $28,000 to $25,400 per coin – the lowest level in the past two months.
Tesla and SpaceX have not yet commented.
In February 2021, Musk said Tesla bought $1.5 billiоn in Bitcoin when the digital currency’s price was at $40,000. This coin then increased in value to more than 60,000 USԀ, contributing largely to the electric car company’s first quarter 2021 profits . At one stage, the value of this digital money was even greater than the company’s entire profit from selling cars in 2020.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s second quarter 2023 earnings report said that the company has sold all the cryptocurrency it ever owned, except for the $184 million in Bitcoin it held. This is the remaining amount after the company “cut losses” of more than 30,000 Bitcoin in the second quarter of 2022 and earned 936 million USԀ, equivalent to 75% of the initial 1.5 billiоn USԀ.
Musk is one of the most influential people in the cryptocurrency world, as his every action affects the market. Many experts believe that he manipulated Bitcoin prices, some investors even sued the American billionaire because his statements about cryptocurrency caused them losses.
Earlier this year, he said he had lost interest in cryptocurrencies and switched to AI. In mid-July, the American billionaire showed that when he founded xAI with the ambition to “understand the true nature of the universe” and develop an alternative to ChatGPT.