Tesla Reports Bitcoin Holdings Unchanged in Q4

The value of Tesla's (TSLA) bitcoin holdings at the end of the fourth quarter remained unchanged from the end of the previous quarter at $1.26 billion, the electric car maker said in its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday.

• Tesla did not buy or sell any bitcoin in the quarter, nor did it record any impairments to the value of its bitcoin holdings because the price of bitcoin was essentially flat from the end of the third quarter to the end of the fourth quarter.
• In the third quarter, Tesla also did not add to or reduce its bitcoin holdings, but was required to report a $51 million impairment to reflect the decline in the price of the cryptocurrency.
• According to accounting rules for digital assets, if the price of an asset falls during a quarter, a company must report an impairment. But if the price increases, it is not reported as a gain on the balance sheet.
• Tesla announced in February it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Later in Q1, the company trimmed its bitcoin position by 10%, a sale that boosted that quarter’s earnings by $272 million. Tesla didn’t buy or sell any bitcoin in the second quarter.
• Overall, Tesla’s adjusted Q4 earnings per share came in at $2.54 versus the $2.36 expected by analysts, according to FactSet. Revenue came in at $17.7 billion against the $17.1 billion expected.
• Tesla’s share price initially fell about 4% after the release of the earnings but then recovered. Shares were most recently up slightly to $939.51.

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