Tesla Holds 1.48 Trillion KRW Worth of Bitcoin... No Additional Trading Planned

▲Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Tesla, the American electric vehicle company led by Elon Musk, announced on the 20th (local time) that it holds Bitcoin worth 1.48 trillion KRW.

On this day, Tesla disclosed its Bitcoin holdings worth $1.26 billion (approximately 1.4805 trillion KRW) while announcing its third-quarter earnings.

In February, Tesla announced it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, and in April, it sold 10% of its holdings.

Bloomberg reported that Tesla neither bought nor sold additional Bitcoin in the third quarter, maintaining its current holdings.

However, due to a price drop in the third quarter compared to the purchase price, an impairment loss of $51 million (approximately 60 billion KRW) was incurred.

Currently, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are classified as intangible assets rather than cash equivalents like the dollar under U.S. accounting standards.

Accordingly, if the Bitcoin price falls below the purchase price, an impairment loss must be recognized and reflected as an expense.

Conversely, if Bitcoin rises above the purchase price, the intangible asset is not recorded as a gain on the books until the Bitcoin is actually sold and the profit realized.

Bitcoin briefly approached $67,000 on this day, setting a new all-time high.

Investor optimism driven by the approval of Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading pushed prices higher.

If the Bitcoin rally continues into the fourth quarter, the value of Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings is expected to increase further.

Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not attend the conference call with investors and analysts held after the earnings announcement for the first time.

Musk stated in the July conference call, "If I don’t have anything important to say, I will not necessarily attend future earnings calls."

Major foreign media noted that Tesla’s quarterly conference calls have been unpredictable due to the celebrity-level CEO Musk’s unexpected remarks, but predicted that "if Musk continues to be absent, the earnings calls will become occasions for calmly reviewing the company’s situation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.