Tesla Still Holds Bitcoin And No Dogecoin, But Maintains DOGE-Only Payments

Posted on January 26, 2023
News
By Mark Otto
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Electric car manufacturer Tesla has released its fourth-quarter financial report, revealing that the company’s Bitcoin holdings have remained unchanged, just like its Dogecoin holdings – which are still zero. In the report released yesterday, the Elon Musk-led company revealed that despite the recent market crash, it neither bought nor sold BTC in the fourth quarter. […][...]

In the report released yesterday, the Elon Musk-led company revealed that despite the recent market crash, it neither bought nor sold BTC in the fourth quarter. With this, Tesla proves that it does not have “weak hands” and believes in Bitcoin appreciation, even though the company’s Bitcoin investment is still in deficit.

Tesla made its most recent sale in the second quarter when it sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings, worth $936 million. Musk’s company held $184 million in Bitcoin (estimated at 9,720 BTC) as of Dec. 31, down about $34 million in the fourth quarter from $218 million in the third quarter.

Dogecoin Remains Off Tesla’s Balance Sheet

Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, however, continues to be absent from Tesla’s financial reports. The meme coin is not to be found with a single mention in the document.

But at least the DOGE community can boast that the meme coin remains the only cryptocurrency Tesla accepts as means of payment on its website.

In a FAQ about Dogecoin, Tesla writes:

Tesla only accepts Dogecoin. Tesla cannot receive or detect any other digital assets. Ensure you are making your purchase with Dogecoin. Sending any other digital assets may result in the assets being lost or destroyed. Non-Dogecoin digital assets sent to Tesla will not be returned to the purchaser.

At the same time, the company also makes it clear that it cannot accept DOGE, even in the case of a purchase revocation. “All Dogecoin purchases are final sale. Items purchased with Dogecoin cannot be returned, exchanged or canceled. Items purchased with Dogecoin cannot be returned or exchanged for cash.”

Tesla suspended all purchases with Bitcoin in May 2021 due to increasing pressure from the ESG lobby over environmental concerns. Later, in March 2022, Elon Musk announced that Tesla merchandise could be purchased with DOGE.

However, things have changed since then. The Bitcoin Mining Council was established by MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, and Musk said that Tesla would resume Bitcoin payments when mining was more than 50% sustainable.

The Bitcoin Mining Council has confirmed this several times in its quarterly reports that bitcoin mining is turning green. In the most recent Q4 report, the organization found that Bitcoin mining has a sustainable energy mix of 58.9%, making it one of the most sustainable industries in the world.

Whether DOGE will remain the only crypto payment method allowed for a long time remains to be seen.

DOGE Price Today

At press time, DOGE stood at $0.0858, remaining relatively flat after seeing a 41% rally from December 30 to January 22 when the price hit a local high of $0.0928.