Tesla sells most of its Bitcoin holdings

Tesla, which made waves last year when it revealed a major investment in Bitcoin, has now sold off most of its holdings of the cryptocurrency.

The electric carmaker said it had offloaded 75% of its Bitcoin, which was worth about $2bn at the end of 2021.

It is backing away as the value of the cryptocurrency has plunged, falling by more than 50% this year.

Tesla said it bought traditional currency with the $936m (£782m) from its Bitcoin sales.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been among the most high profile champions of cryptocurrency, with his pronouncements on social media often driving significant trading activity.

Tesla's $1.5bn investment in Bitcoin, revealed in February 2021, prompted a surge of demand in the currency. The price of the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency soared last year to almost $70,000 in November before crashing.

One Bitcoin now trades for less than $25,000.

Tesla shared the sale of the holdings as part of its regular quarterly update. It said Bitcoin was one of the factors that hurt its profitability in the three months to July.

Tesla last year stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars, citing concerns about the climate impact of energy-intensive Bitcoin mining.

At the time, Mr Musk said on social media that the company would not be selling the Bitcoin it owned.