Does Elon Musk want to sell Tesla’s Bitcoin stash? Sign of a temporary top?

Elon Musk, still the richest man in the world, has instructed Tesla to transfer their remaining Bitcoins (now worth around $700 million), to another crypto wallet.

Commentators therefore fear that Musk is planning a sale. A move that could affect the Bitcoin price given the importance of Musk himself as well as the size of Tesla’s stash. Tesla is the fourth largest corporate holder of Bitcoins in the United States.

2021-2022

When Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoins in February 2021, it set the price of the largest digital currency on its way to $50,000. Musk gave Bitcoin favorable comments at the time and claimed that more and more major US companies would purchase Bitcoin. However, that didn’t really happen.

Tesla at one point owned as much as $2.5 billion in Bitcoins (according to data from crypto research firm Arkham). However, when the price of Bitcoin collapsed in 2022, Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoins (at a loss) and the price fell 10% due to Musk’s comments.

When Bitcoin reached a record price in March this year, Tesla still owned about 11,509 Bitcoins, worth about $770 million. At the current price, Tesla’s stash is worth near $700 million.

Tesla moves over $760 million BTC and now has 0 #Bitcoin

ELON MUSK SOLD IT ALL??? 🤡 pic.twitter.com/6SgH7k4wqk

— Vivek⚡️ (@Vivek4real_) October 15, 2024

Tesla is the fourth largest holder of bitcoins among listed American companies. Only software company MicroStrategy and bitcoin mining companies Mara Holdings and Riot Platforms have larger reserves.

If Musk were to order Tesla’s Bitcoin stock to be sold, it would be extremely bearish for the market right now. Tesla’s stock has had a bad year and is still at a loss since the beginning of this year. Additional income of around 700 million dollars would therefore be welcome.