SpaceX wrote down $373M worth of Bitcoin back in 2021-2022: Report
Elon Musk announced in 2021 that SpaceX had some Bitcoin holdings following an SEC filing showing Tesla planned to purchase $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency.
Aerospace technology firm SpaceX reportedly wrote down the value of Bitcoin it owns by a total of $373 million last year and the year before and may have sold all of its holdings.
According to an Aug. 17 report in The Wall Street Journal, SpaceX recorded $373 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) holdings on its balance sheet in 2021 and 2022 and has reportedly sold the cryptocurrency.
It hasn’t been confirmed whether the entire $373 million stash was sold.
“SpaceX wrote down the value of bitcoin it owns by a total of $373 million last year and in 2021 and has sold the cryptocurrency,” reported the WSJ.
The news outlet reportedly viewed documents on the firm’s financials showing roughly $5.2 billion in total expenses for 2022, and $5.4 billion in 2021 and 2022 for acquiring property and equipment in addition to research and development costs.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk publicly announced in 2021 that the firm had acquired a certain amount of Bitcoin. This followed a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showing Tesla — another company co-founded by Musk — planned to purchase $1.5 billion worth of the crypto asset. The announcement likely contributed to BTC hitting a then-all-time-high price of more than $43,000.
According to Tesla’s second-quarter 2023 earnings report, the firm had sold all but $184 million worth of its Bitcoin holdings. Tesla reported it had liquidated more than 30,000 BTC in the second quarter of 2022 for $936 million — roughly 75% of its original $1.5 billion BTC holdings.
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Musk, one of the richest people in the world, has often taken to social media to comment on certain cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin (DOGE) and Bitcoin, even briefly changing Twitter’s then-blue bird logo to the DOGE shiba inu. Since his $44 billion purchase of Twitter — later rebranded to X — in October 2022, he has suggested the platform could offer an ”entire financial world,” including banking and payment services.
Doges ftw pic.twitter.com/bl0trQ7BdU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2023
The timing of SpaceX’s reported Bitcoin sale is unclear, but the crypto market experienced a significant crash in 2022 amid the collapse of major firms, including Terraform Labs. Many technology firms and financial institutions continue to hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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Update (Aug. 17, 11:03 pm UTC): This article has been updated to reflect that it hasn’t been confirmed whether SpaceX’s entire Bitcoin holdings were sold, or only partially.
