Tesla Invests $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin, Pushing Price to All-Time High Above $44,000

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Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in January, the company said in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

News of the move, worth 10 percent of Tesla’s cash reserves, caused the digital currency’s price to surge from over the weekend $37,000 to an all-time high of more than $44,100 on Monday morning. The company said it “may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term,” but did not say what other cryptocurrencies it might be considering.

Tesla said it did so with the expectation that it would “begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment” for its products “in the near future.”

Bitcoin has broken several records in recent weeks, rising more than 30 percent from its $29,000 price at the beginning of January. Tesla’s $1.5 billion infusion would have been worth around 45,000 units at $35,000, where its price hovered for much of the month. Observers have predicted prices reaching as high as $100,000 by the end of 2021.

The bull market has been encouraged, in part, by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who added the phrase “#bitcoin” to his biography on Twitter in January, prompting its price to rise slightly the next day. He also tweeted favorably about “Dogecoin,” a cryptocurrency that began as a joke. The price of that token subsequently surged by 800 percent.

The cryptocurrency market — which contains thousands of digital currencies — was worth more than $1.3 trillion as of Monday afternoon, according to CoinGecko. The figure represents a more than 60 percent increase from just under $800 billion at the beginning of the year. The news from Tesla played a role in boosting it by 11 percent, or more than $100 billion, compared to Sunday.

Digital currency isn’t the only financial instrument that Musk’s brand has powered to new heights. Tesla’s stock on Monday was trading at $857 after news of the new SEC filing, just shy of its $900 all-time high.

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