Tesla founder Elon Musk has demonstrated an interest in cryptocurrency.
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Tesla Inc. TSLA 2.20% on Monday said it has invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin, and that it may accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its products in the near future, sending the price of bitcoin soaring.
Tesla disclosed the bitcoin purchase in its latest annual report filed on Monday, saying members of its board’s audit committee updated Tesla’s 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 company is now allowed to invest cash in “digital assets,” gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets, according to the report.
“We believe our bitcoin holdings are highly liquid,” Tesla said.
Founder Elon Musk has shown he is interested in bitcoin. Last month, he changed his Twitter biography to “#bitcoin,” a move that sent prices for it higher. His tweets about dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was started in 2013 as a joke, also made that virtual currency much more valuable.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected] and Caitlin Ostroff at [email protected]
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