During today’s Tesla earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon explained the reason for the company’s Selling 75% of your bitcoin holdingsWhich is worth about $936 million, as reported in its second quarter earnings report.
“The reason we sold a bunch of our bitcoin holdings was because we were unsure when the COVID lockdown in China would ease,” Musk said on the call. “So given the uncertainty of the COVID lockdown in China, it was important for us to maximize our cash position.”
Although China eased COVID restrictions in major cities in late May, a surge in cases in Beijing and other key regions prompted the government to reimpose the rules a few weeks later. Earlier this month large-scale testing and lockdown were implemented in Shanghai.
As a result, China’s “zero COVID policy” is again being put to the test, leaving . Showing new warnings of big economic headwinds,
On the call, the company reported that Telsa converted most of its bitcoin holdings to fiat for real profit, netting a $106 million cost for P&L (profit and loss) included in restructuring expenses related to targeted staffing cuts. did.
Despite the sell-off, Musk said Tesla is ready to increase its coin holdings in the future.
“This should not be taken as some judgment on bitcoin,” he said, ensuring that Tesla did not sell any of its Dogecoin.
In a follow-up question-and-answer session, Musk said that cryptocurrency was not something the company thinks about a lot and is “a sideshow for a sideshow” and an idea for the company.
Musk clarified that Tesla’s primary goal is to “accelerate the arrival of sustainable energy.”
“We are neither here nor there on cryptocurrency,” he said.
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