The electric car maker Tesla acquired bitcoins worth $1.5 billion last month as a long-term asset. The company also confirmed that it would begin to accept this cryptocurrency as a payment method in the near future for its products.
Tesla would be the first automaker to accept Bitcoins as a means of payment for its products.
Tesla announced this crypto transaction to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. According to the document to the SEC, the idea behind Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin has to do with its strategy of diversifying its assets, with the intention of obtaining long-term returns on capital.
In the stock exchange release, however, Tesla expressly refers to the risks that can be associated with the acquisition of digital currencies such as Bitcoin.
With its entry into this market and the maintenance of a Bitcoin portfolio in books, the door is opening to make it more difficult to have an idea about the value of the company outside of its operations. From now on, they will have to start adjusting charges for impairment with fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin, much more volatile than the rest of the investment vehicles that the company had until now.
Tesla boss Elon Musk has repeatedly hyped cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the past. Most recently, he published several messages on Twitter that could be interpreted as support for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.