Elon Musk's Tesla, one of the largest bitcoin (BTC) holders, has moved nearly all of the $760 million in cryptocurrency it owns to unknown wallets, raising the possibility that the automaker is selling.
Wallets associated with the electric carmaker moved more than 11,500 bitcoins to wallets with unknown owners on Tuesday, according to cryptocurrency data firm Arkham Intelligence. The Tesla wallets only hold about $6.65 worth of BTC — essentially nothing.
Tesla is the fourth-largest holder of bitcoin among public U.S. companies, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries. Only software company MicroStrategy and bitcoin mining firms MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms have larger holdings.
Tesla bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin in February 2021 and at one point owned as much as $2.5 billion, according to Arkham data. However, the company sold 75% of its stake at a loss in early 2022. When Arkham Intelligence added tracking of the automaker's bitcoin wallet to its dashboard in March, the company held about 11,509 bitcoin, worth about $770 million.
Musk also previously announced, when Tesla first bought back shares, that the company would soon accept bitcoin payments, but the plan was scrapped shortly after due to environmental concerns.
While several of Musk's companies — including Tesla and SpaceX — hold bitcoin on their balance sheets, it's unclear how much the owner of X (formerly Twitter) believes in the cryptocurrency. In an interview aired on YouTube in July, Musk said he thinks "bitcoin has some value, and maybe some other cryptocurrencies," but his preference is dogecoin (DOGE).
