Tesla’s Bitcoin blunder cost the company billions of dollars in profit

Tesla made a crucial mistake with its Bitcoin investment that caused the company to miss out on billions in profit, according to reports.
EO Elon Musk has been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrencies in the past, even investing in ‘meme coins’ such as Dogecoin.
In 2021, Musk made headlines when Tesla invested $1.5 billion to buy around 43,000 Bitcoin, costing about $38,000 per coin.
This helped boost Bitcoin’s value to around $50,000 at the time, meaning Tesla’s $1.5billion investment quickly became $2.65billion in mid-March 2021.
When Bitcoin reached $60,000 by the end of the month, Tesla sold 10 percent of its coins to rake in approximately $250million.
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Tesla then held on to the remainder of its Bitcoin investment, worth around $875 million in June 2022.
It was at this point Tesla decided to sell the majority of it coins, flogging 29,160 coins at an average price of about $20,000.
Bitcoin went on to hit its lowest level in 18 months shortly after this, but has now gained 350 percent in value since.
This means Musk and Tesla sold the coins at almost the worst possible time.
Bitcoin’s value has soared to £73,750 in 2024. Had Tesla held on to its original investment, it would have been worth nearly $3.2 billion.
As things stand, Tesla’s Bitcoin investment is now worth around $700 million, as reported by Benzinga.
Musk recently spoke of his plan to build an “everything app” that hosts all of people’s needs in one place.
He added that crypto would be included in the app.
Musk added in his post on X: “The circle will be complete.”
On Dogecoin, Musk has previously joked: “The most entertaining outcome is often the most likely. Arguably, the most entertaining outcome, and the most ironic outcome, would be that dogecoin becomes the currency of Earth in the future.”