By Senad Karaahmetovic
In today’s 10-Q filing, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) said it recorded $170 million of impairment losses as a result of changes to the carrying value of the company's Bitcoin (BTC) holdings in the six months to June 30.
Moreover, the electric vehicle (EV) giant said it had “gains of $64 million on certain conversions of bitcoin into fiat currency by us.”
Last week, Tesla reported it sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings, which generated $936 million in cash to its balance sheet. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, clarified Tesla’s action on the earnings call.
“It should be mentioned that the reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the Covid-19 lockdowns in China would alleviate. So it was important for us to maximize our cash position, given the uncertainty of the Covid-19 lockdowns in China.”
“We are certainly open to increasing our Bitcoin holdings in the future, so this should not be taken as some verdict on Bitcoin. It’s just that we were concerned about overall liquidity for the company, given Covid-19 shutdowns in China. And we have not sold any of our Dogecoin.”
As of the end of Q2, the total worth of Tesla’s remaining Bitcoin was $218 million.