Tesla, America’s foremost electric car manufacturer has quietly moved over $769 million worth of its BTC assets to several unknown wallets in a move sparking speculation in the crypto community.
The transactions were picked up by Onchain tracker Arkham Intelligence which revealed that wallets linked to Tesla started making a series of transactions on October 15 after conducting small test transactions.
After successful test transactions, the Tesla-linked wallets succeeded in moving a whopping $769 million worth of BTC (11,500 BTC) to seven unknown addresses.
This is the first time Tesla has moved its crypto assets since June 17, 2022.
The move by Tesla sparked speculations in the crypto industry of a potential sell-off by the electric car maker.
So far, Tesla has not made an official statement on the move and whether it plans to sell off its BTC assets. Analysts and Market watchers can only wait for Tesla’s upcoming Q3 Earnings report slated to be released on October 23 for possible statements on the move by Tesla.
An X observer stated that the move by Tesla was not geared towards Bitcoin sell-offs but rather an effort by Tesla to gain direct custody of the coins. He also insinuated that the EV car maker might be looking towards returning to accepting Bitcoin for payment of its Tesla products.
“This is not selling, it is more likely taking direct custody of the coins, which would signal a reactivation of BTC payments. The tell is the legacy address format, which exchanges don’t use anymore for coins that are going to be taxed in the near term.” The X observer pointed out.
Tesla last sold Bitcoin in June 2022 and has not made significant move with its assets since then. The EV car maker sold 29,160 BTC at an average price of $20,000 per coin. The sale remains the firm’s biggest sale to date.
Prior to that, the firm had sold 4,320 BTC a month after acquiring $1.5 billion of the flagship crypto in February 2021.
Elon Musk at the time explained that the move was to demonstrate how easy it was to liquidate Bitcoin without significantly impacting the market.
In addition to acquiring Bitcoin, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the firm would start to accept Bitcoin as a payment for its vehicles.
However, this move didn’t last long as Tesla suspended it few months later citing growing concerns over the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, particularly the heavy reliance on fossil fuels, such as coal, to power the mining operations.