Tesla nets an accounting loss on its Bitcoin investments, but still has US$2 billion worth

Like a lot of crypto investors that got on the Bitcoin bandwagon full steam just in 2021, Tesla also netted a loss on its crypto portfolio, at least on paper. The electric carmaker reveals in its latest SEC filing that it currently has about US$1.99 billion in bitcoins, after it recorded a US$101 million loss in various writedowns on its total 2021 investment in crypto. Still, Tesla sold some of its Bitcoin holdings back in March of last year, notching a US$128 million profit then, so it may have survived the crypto crash unscathed despite the accounting loss. It's a typical "win some, lose some" situation in the case of Elon Musk's crypto entrepreneurship, who bought Bitcoin when it was trading in the US$30,000-US$38,000 range, rather than the "lose your shirt" scenario that many who bought on margin at the 2021 peak are currently in.

Bloomberg recently parsed that more than half of new crypto investors in the United States (55%, to be precise) got into Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other digital assets just this past year. The number is not all that surprising given the crypto craze of 2021 which saw the Bitcoin price peak at almost US$70,000 before sliding to the current US$40,000 or so level and taking many new investors down with it. Tesla recently started accepting Elon Musk's favorite Dogecoin for some of the items in its store, but, judging from its latest SEC filing, it might still be a long way from pricing its electric cars in crypto, too.

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