Tesla made $ 1 billion in profit from its bitcoin investment: Analyst

Tesla She made nearly $ 1 billion in paper profits from her investment in BitcoinAccording to Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Ives estimated in a note published on Saturday that the company is “on track to make more of its bitcoin investment than the profits from selling its electric vehicles (electric car) in the whole of 2020.”

Earlier this month, the US electric car maker revealed in a SEC dossier that it has They bought $ 1.5 billion Bitcoin For “more flexibility to increase diversification and maximize returns on our money”.

The company said the purchase was made sometime in January, without revealing when or at what price it bought the bitcoin. It is unclear if Tesla has sold any of the Bitcoins yet.

Bitcoin has soared this year, touching new highs regularly. Bitcoin’s market value exceeds $ 1 trillion for the first time Last week, the value of the cryptocurrency has risen 94% since the start of the year.

Ives did not explain how he got to this account. But according to CoinDesk data, bitcoin rose from an intraday high of $ 34,793.45 on January 31 to an intraday high of $ 57,487.03 on February 20, the day Ives published its note.

This represents a rise of roughly 65%, which puts Tesla’s $ 1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin at around $ 975 million. Based on Monday’s high of $ 58,332.36, that profit would be more than $ 1 billion.

“While Bitcoin investing is a side show for Tesla, it was clearly a good initial investment and a trend we anticipate that could have a ripple effect on other public companies over the next 12 to 18 months,” said Ives.

CEO of Tesla Corporation Elon Musk He is a proponent of digital currencies. He said recently that Bitcoin “is simply a less stupid form of liquidity than cash.”

But he also tweeted on Saturday that the price Bitcoin and Ethereum “look high”.