The US electric car maker Tesla owned nearly billion worth of bitcoins at the end of last year, according to financial documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“In the first quarter of 2021, we invested a total of $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin. We believe in the long-term potential of digital assets as both an investment and a liquid alternative to cash,” the documents said.

“The fair market value of the bitcoins we own as of December 31, 2021, is $ 1.99 billion,” they said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said early last year that the company had begun accepting bitcoin as a means of payment, but the company stopped the possibility in May due to environmental concerns.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ended 2021 with a profit of approximately 60%, trading at just over ,000 on December 31, according to the Anadolu Agency.

Although the price of bitcoin fell below ,000 on July 20 last year, on November 10 it rose to the highest level in its history of ,000.

Despite its sharp decline since then due to high volatility, bitcoin has recovered in recent days and climbed above ,000.

Tesla is the second-largest publicly traded company in the world after MicroStrategy, which owns bitcoin. The company is estimated to own nearly 43,000 bitcoins.

/BGNES

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