Aerospace technology firm SpaceX has reportedly sold approximately $373 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) that it acquired starting in 2021. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on August 17, SpaceX had recorded $373 million worth of Bitcoin holdings on its balance sheet in 2021 and 2022 but has since sold the cryptocurrency. The report cited documents on the firm’s financials, which showed total expenses of approximately $5.2 billion for 2022 and $5.4 billion in 2021 and 2022 for acquiring property and equipment, as well as research and development costs.
SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk, publicly announced in 2021 that the company had acquired a certain amount of Bitcoin. This announcement came after a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed that Tesla, another company co-founded by Musk, planned to purchase $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. The news likely contributed to the then all-time high price of Bitcoin, surpassing $43,000.
In Tesla’s Q2 2023 earnings report, it was revealed that the company had sold all but $184 million worth of its Bitcoin holdings. Tesla liquidated over 30,000 BTC in the second quarter of 2022, amounting to $936 million, which was approximately 75% of its original $1.5 billion BTC holdings.
Elon Musk, known as one of the richest people in the world, has frequently taken to social media to express his views on various cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin (DOGE) and Bitcoin. He even temporarily changed Twitter’s logo to the DOGE Shiba Inu. After Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, later rebranded as X, he suggested that the platform could offer an “entire financial world,” including banking and payment services.
The exact timing of SpaceX’s Bitcoin sale remains unclear, but it took place during a period of significant volatility in the crypto market in 2022, which saw major firms like Terraform Labs collapse. Despite this, many technology firms and financial institutions continue to hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In summary, SpaceX has reportedly sold around $373 million worth of Bitcoin acquired since 2021. The sale of Bitcoin by SpaceX aligns with similar moves made by Tesla, showing a trend of companies offloading their cryptocurrency holdings. Elon Musk’s involvement and interest in cryptocurrencies continue to shape market dynamics, while the crypto industry as a whole remains both volatile and attractive for many technology and financial companies.
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