Tesla likely still owns $780M in Bitcoin despite recent shuffle: Arkham

Rreported by Cpintelegraph: Tesla’s massive Bitcoin transfers initially sparked fears of a market dump, but Arkham's data suggests the assets are still under the firm's control.

Electric car manufacturer Tesla probably still owns its entire Bitcoin stash worth $780 million despite transferring all the funds to unidentified wallets on Oct. 15, according to a blockchain analytics firm.

“We believe that the Tesla wallet movements that we reported last week were wallet rotations with the Bitcoin still owned by Tesla,” Arkham Intelligence said in an Oct. 22 X post.

Tesla split the 11,509 Bitcoin between seven wallets holding between 1,100 and 2,200 BTC on Oct. 15, Arkham noted. Wallet addresses “1Fnhp” and “1LERL” received the largest batches worth $142.2 million and $128.1 million, respectively.

The massive transfers initially fueled fears of a potential market dump — prompting anxiety on social media platforms like X.

Still, the wallets haven’t moved any Bitcoin funds since Oct. 15, Arkham’s data shows.

It also hasn’t affected Bitcoin’s price, which increased 5% from the time of Tesla’s transfers to $69,220 on Oct. 21, CoinGecko data shows. Bitcoin has since pulled back 2.3% to $67,600.

While it isn’t clear why Tesla made the transfers, Arkham noted some observers speculate the funds may be moving to a custodian, potentially allowing billionaire Elon Musk’s firm to secure a loan against the Bitcoin.

Tesla currently uses Coinbase Prime Custody to store its Bitcoin.

Tesla executives may reveal their plans with the Bitcoin during its third-quarter earnings call scheduled after the bell on Oct. 23.

If Arkham’s analysis is correct, Musk’s firm remains the fourth-biggest corporate Bitcoin holder, trailing only business intelligence firm MicroStrategy and Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms, according to BitcoinTreasuries data.

Musk’s spacecraft manufacturing business, SpaceX, still holds 8,285 Bitcoin worth $560 million, the seventh-largest Bitcoin holdings by a private firm.

Tesla first purchased Bitcoin in February 2021, buying $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk briefly accepted Bitcoin as a payment for the company’s vehicles in March 2021 but reversed the decision a few weeks later.