Tesla's Q1 2023 Report Reveals Its Pro-Bitcoin Stance; Beats Revenue Estimate By $100M

American electric vehicle maker Tesla released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2023 after the market closed Wednesday, revealing that it has not made any changes in its Bitcoin holdings.

Tesla's accounting sheets showed that the electric vehicle maker, in a third consecutive quarter, neither sold its existing BTC nor bought more and seemingly holds the same stance on its Bitcoin stash.

As of Thursday, Tesla holds nearly 12,000 BTC or approximately 11,950 Bitcoin, which is worth more than $349 million, based on the current value of the crypto asset.

In the Q4 2022 report, Tesla valued its Bitcoin holdings at $184 million, the same number it projected for this quarter despite the spike in the price of the crypto asset at the start of this year. Due to accounting rules, Tesla did not increase its Bitcoin valuation and classifies its crypto holdings as an intangible asset or goodwill.

In other words, the electric vehicle maker will list a quarterly loss analysis for the BTC loss and record a profit for when it will sell the crypto asset. Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in February 2021, with its holdings climbing to $2.5 billion at one point.

The electric vehicle maker, however, sold almost three-quarters of that amount in Q2 2022 as it held $218 million of BTC in Q2 and Q3 2022 before losing a chunk of its value to volatility and sales.

Before the 2022 bear market, Tesla had a more pro-Bitcoin stance, and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who is the company's CEO, previously planned to add more Bitcoin to Tesla's holdings and make Bitcoin an option for payments.

The plan, however, fell through and Musk cited environmental concerns in mining the crypto asset as the major reason for averting the plan.

Unlike MicroStrategy which has remained bullish in its stance on Bitcoin and has already earned revenue from its BTC holdings, Tesla appears to have mellowed down in its Bitcoin accumulation.

Tesla's Q1 2023 report also revealed that it beat its forecast by around $100 million when it recorded a $232.33 billion revenue against its $23.21 billion forecast.