Electric car maker Tesla and its founder Elon Musk don’t seem to have given up on crypto payments just yet. In its third-quarter earnings release today, the company hinted that it may start trading in cryptocurrencies for its products and services in the future. Excerpt from Tesla’s third-quarter earnings for fiscal 2021:
“In the future, we may relaunch the practice of transacting in cryptocurrencies (“digital assets”) for our products and services.”
The company, which became profitable for the first time since its founding last year, became the sixth company to surpass $1 trillion in market cap on Monday, after signing a new deal with Hertz for the largest-ever rental car order. Tesla also said that in the nine-month period ending September 30, the company purchased a total of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. The change in payment method was explained as follows:
“Furthermore, for the three months ending March 31, 2021, we accepted Bitcoin as payment subject to the laws applicable to sales of certain of our products in certain regions and suspended this practice in May 2021.”
As it is known, Tesla accepted BTC as a form of payment at the beginning of the year. Besides, they bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. In the second quarter, the value of BTC increased and the value of its assets rose to almost $3 billion. Later, there was a pullback movement in the market, which started with the suspension of the payment method.
Elon Musk, who has about 60 million followers on Twitter, significantly influences the cryptocurrency world. His witty tweets about digital assets cause prices to rise or fall. Likewise, the company’s crypto moves have a huge impact on the market. There’s only a small chance that Tesla will start accepting Bitcoin payments again. However, if such a development occurs, it can be predicted that the market will move in line with this development.
Disclaimer: What is written here is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments are high-risk investments. Every investment decision is under the individual’s own responsibility. Finally, Koinfinans and the author of this content cannot be held responsible for personal investment decisions.