It appears that Tesla is indeed serious about allowing customers in the future to purchase their vehicles using Bitcoin. This was hinted at in a recently submitted Form 10-K that Tesla filed to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
In its filing, the electric car maker revealed that it had acquired $1.5 billion in Bitcoins in January, and that it intends to accept the cryptocurrency as a payment option in the near future. The update from Tesla promptly sent Bitcoin prices up over 12% to around $43,394, a gain of nearly 9% in early trading.
“We invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” Tesla wrote, later adding that “digital assets may be subject to volatile market prices, which may be unfavorable at the time when we want or need to liquidate them.”
The update comes amidst Elon Musk’s frequent posts about cryptocurrencies in his Twitter page. While the majority of Musk’s cryptocurrency-related posts have so far involved Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created as a joke, the Tesla CEO did incite speculations when he briefly updated his Twitter profile with a #bitcoin hashtag. Musk also later tweeted “In retrospect, it was inevitable.”
Earlier this month in a session on drop-in audio conference app Clubhouse, the CEO stated that he supports Bitcoin. “I do at this point think bitcoin is a good thing, and I am a supporter of Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” Musk said.
Allowing customers to purchase their Teslas through Bitcoin would further emphasize the electric car maker as a future-forward company that has its pulse in emerging trends. This is very much in line with Tesla’s character, considering that the company prides itself in being at the bleeding edge of tech, both in terms of its vehicles and in the ways that they could be purchased.
Read Tesla’s Form 10-K here.
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