Tesla’s annual 10-K report reveals major investments in bitcoin as the company announces it will start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment “in the near future.”
Here’s more information from The Verge:
“Tesla customers have been calling on founder and CEO Elon Musk to accept bitcoin for vehicle purchases recently. Musk has been vocal about backing the cryptocurrency on Twitter, even adding #bitcoin to his profile recently.
“‘In January 2021, we updated our investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity. As part of the policy, we may invest a portion of such cash in certain specified alternative reserve assets.
“‘Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy. 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.’
What IT departments can take away from this move
I think the world of corporate sector information technology can take away a couple of lessons from Tesla’s investment in bitcoin.
First, that bitcoin may be more valid as an alternative payment than other corporations may have previously thought. When Tesla announced they would be investing so much in the cryptocurrency, the value of a single bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $43,000. This is on top of previous growth in the last year.
Read Next: Cryptocurrency and the IT Department: Would (or Should?) Your Org Ever Accept Alternative Payment?
Second, that bitcoin may not be the only up-and-coming cryptocurrency. As The Verge points out in their article, Elon Musk had tweeted about Dogecoin recently, inflating the currency’s value in mere moments after the tweets went out.
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