Hannibal Hanschke-Pool/Getty Images
Bitcoin soared 13% to all-time-highs of $43,725.51 after documents filed with the SEC on Monday revealed that Tesla invested $1.5 billion in the popular cryptocurrency. Shares of Tesla jumped as much as 2%.
The electric vehicle maker said in its annual 10-k filing on Monday that it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in January, and it plans to begin accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the near future.
“In January 2021, we updated our investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity,” the filing said.
Tesla isn’t the first firm to convert a portion of its cash into bitcoin, with Microstrategy adopting that policy over the past year, making it a defacto bitcoin trading vehicle.
The Tesla filing went on to say, “We may invest a portion of such cash in certain alternative reserve assets including digital assets, gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets as specified in the future.”