Tesla Holds Its BTC For Third Consecutive Quarter, Beats Revenue Estimates

Shortly after the market’s close on Wednesday, April 19th, Tesla published its earnings report for the first quarter of 2023. Despite managing to beat revenue estimates, and matching earnings estimates, the company’s stock tumbled more than 3% in after-hours trading reflecting a significant drop in earnings compared to the results in 2022. The company also revealed it had sold none of its nearly 12,000 BTC.

Tesla Beats Q1 Estimans, Holds On to Its Bitcoin

On Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk’s Tesla published its results for the first quarter of 2023. In Q1 the car maker’s revenue stood at $23.33 billion—significantly beating forecasts of approximately $23.21 billion. Its per-share earnings, however, were as was forecast and amounted to $0.85.

Much like in 2022’s Q3 and Q4, the company revealed it had sold none of its nearly 12,000 Bitcoin—currently worth around $350 million. After months of seemingly unrealized losses, Tesla’s cryptocurrency holdings have gained significantly since the year started as BTC rose from just over $16,000 on January 1st, to about $30,000 in mid-April.

Despite the developments, Tesla’s shares were falling throughout Wednesday. After dropping 3% in the premarket, they declined another 2.02% before the close and collapsed more than 3% after the report was published. The movements are likely the result both of the fact that, despite beating estimates, Tesla’s earnings were significantly worse than in the same period in 2022, and the most recent price cuts for some of the car maker’s top models.

Tesla Up 67% in 2023

So far, 2023 has proven to be somewhat mixed for Elon Musk’s car company. The company has seen several significant stock price surges on good news from regions like Europe and China signaling that its production capacity is reaching record levels. The company has also been seeking to further increase its ability to deliver larger quantities of cars with alleged talks about opening a new factory in Indonesia happening already in January.

The company also suffered several setbacks on the stock market as each of its six price cuts since January caused drops roughly between 3 and 6%. Still, the company has seen impressive growth since January—especially compared to 2022 when its stock price declined from over $300 to about $100—and is up 67.06% YTD.

Another area where Elon Musk’s firm has received a boon is its Bitcoin holdings. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been rising steadily since the New Year leading the digital assets rally of Q1 and reflecting positively on related stocks. Along with Tesla, other companies heavily involved with BTC have also performed exceptionally well since January with, for example, Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy rising more than 100%.

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