Tesla buys $1.5bn in bitcoin and plans to accept it as payment

Tesla has bought $1.2 billion worth of bitcoin, according to a filing with the SEC.

The company said it bought bitcoin for “more flexibility to further diversity and maximise our returns on cash”. In addition to the purchase, the electric car company headed by crypto-advocate Elon Musk, said it would also start accepting bitcoin payments in exchange for its products.

Since the announcement, the price of bitcoin has catapulted to a new all-time high of more than $47k at the time of writing.

It can’t really be said that the news came out of the blue, given Musk’s recent decision to put Bitcoin in his bio. There was also a Twitter exchange in December of last year between Musk and Michael Saylor that certainly hinted at the move:

If you want to do your shareholders a $100 billion favor, convert the $TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC. Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a $1 trillion favor.

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) December 20, 2020

Are such large transactions even possible?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020

One can only assume Saylor shared his “crypto playbook” with him after all. Everyone wants to be like Mike.

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