Where does Elon and Saylor store their bitcoins?

[pawanjain]

Why does it matter where those guys store their bitcoins ?
Even if anybody finds that information out, he/she shouldn't bring out that information since it is something private.
These kind of sensitive information should be kept private otherwise there are a good chances of hackers attacking you.

[NeuroticFish]

This is exactly the part I don't like in Bitcoin: why is everybody so curious about that happens inside this or that person's pocket?!

I may be wrong, but I think this is about people wondering if they really own what they bought, or if they are among those who don't understand what "not your keys, not your coins" means. Seen from our perspective, they don't really own anything in that case - just a promise that something is somewhere.

A company like this, especially since it's not into Bitcoin, cannot afford to handle lightly such huge amounts of funds.
I expect them use 3rd party that help them handle everything and possibly that 3rd party either provides full custody, either keeps has at least one of the multi-sig keys involved. And I expect that 3rd party does all the actual handling (transactions) and possibly employing yet another company to provide insurance.
And, in order to avoid too many curious eyes, probably the addresses will remain private and the companies hired for independent review will sign strong NDAs.


Of course, that's what I'd do. Are Grayscale wallets known? (I expect they're not, but again, maybe my assumptions are wrong).

[FIFA worldcup]

I don’t think he said that publicly, where he stores bitcoin.  I don't know, he can use a hardware wallet or anything else.  However, somebody thinks he stored and bought BTC from Coinbase.

They must have bought from the OTC desk but i don't think it is safe to keep them on coinbase. They should store them in hardware wallets. Since we do not know that in how many transactions did they bought bitcoin and also have no information about their tx ids so we cannot trace them.

[Ibrahim60]

After all the hype, does anyone have information on this? I reckon blockchain analytics should follow those coins of the new VIP of the bitcoin community and follow the movement of their coins.

This is quite impossible to know that where they store their Bitcoin. Because they store big amount of Bitcoin. If they public where they put or store Bitcoin then it is not much secure because some black hat hacker try to steal it. I think they use much secure wallet and some guys help them to secure it from any danger.

[frank07a]

As far as I know, Elon Musk had a problem with the Freewallet, you can read more about it here. From this situation, it is clear that Elon Musk kept some part of the cryptocurrency on this wallet. He also corresponded with a Binance employee, so I think that Elon Musk also has a number of cryptocurrency on this exchange.

[DdmrDdmr]

While I agree that the first part of the OPs question is interesting, and would provide a peephole into how intuitional investors secure their crypto assets, the latter part concerning the call for traceability and the ability to follow their crypto investments around seems too much of a stretch for transparency. Corporations have a right to semi-anonymity too (yet not in front of their investors).

On the matter at hand, Tesla stated the following (SEC form 10k), without going into specific details:

Finally, as intangible assets without centralized issuers or governing bodies, digital assets have been, and may in the future be, subject to security breaches, cyberattacks or other malicious activities, as well as human errors or computer malfunctions that may result in the loss or destruction of private keys needed to access such assets. While we intend to take all reasonable measures to secure any digital assets, if such threats are realized or the measures or controls we create or implement to secure our digital assets fail, it could result in a partial or total misappropriation or loss of our digital assets, and our financial condition and operating results may be harmed.

See: https://ir.tesla.com/_flysystem/s3/sec/000156459021004599/tsla-10k_20201231-gen.pdf

They acknowledge the risks, but do not depict their storage plan; at least that I’ve managed to find.

Microstrategy goes one small step further into unveiling their custody plans (SEC form 8k):

If we or our third-party service providers experience a security breach or cyberattack and unauthorized parties obtain access to our BTC assets, we may lose some or all of our BTC assets and our financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected
Security breaches and cyberattacks are of particular concern with respect to our investment in BTC. While we hold the bulk of our BTC assets with established cryptocurrency custodians, a successful security breach or cyberattack could result in a partial or total loss of our BTC assets in a manner that may not be covered by insurance or indemnity provisions of our custody agreements with those custodians. Such a loss could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

They cite custodians (not being specific as one would expect) and insurance by derivation (provided by the custodian under whatever fine print rules the agreement).

See: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001050446/000119312520215604/d921849d8k.htm

[Yogee]

and follow the movement of their coins.

What kind of useful information would it give anyone to follow where the coins of someone else is going?!

This is probably helpful from a trader's perspective. You are at an advantage if you know their movement. They hold a good volume of BTC and they will most likely sell it on OTC exchanges but the FUD it will create once the news is out may lead others to panic sell.

[Baofeng]

Why does it matter where those guys store their bitcoins ?
Even if anybody finds that information out, he/she shouldn't bring out that information since it is something private.
These kind of sensitive information should be kept private otherwise there are a good chances of hackers attacking you.

Probably someone wanted to see if Tesla really owns $1.5 billion worth of BTC. On the contrary, everything can be seen in the ledger, but it's going to be a guessing game for this analytics company on which address they being held their bitcoin. And it's not easy as just buying a hardware wallet and storing it somewhere, it's more than that. And I do believed that maybe some third party is holding it for them.

[Ryker1]

Why does it matter where those guys store their bitcoins ?
Even if anybody finds that information out, he/she shouldn't bring out that information since it is something private.
These kind of sensitive information should be kept private otherwise there are a good chances of hackers attacking you.

Probably someone wanted to see if Tesla really owns $1.5 billion worth of BTC. On the contrary, everything can be seen in the ledger, but it's going to be a guessing game for this analytics company on which address they being held their bitcoin. And it's not easy as just buying a hardware wallet and storing it somewhere, it's more than that. And I do believed that maybe some third party is holding it for them.

Well, it sounds interesting, -- I never thought this. What if the tesla team did not really invest in bitcoin or if they invested, is that true that the amount of 1.5 billion dollars? Whatever it is we are still guessing here and it will depend on us where we believed. But if that is true, there someone who tech Elon Musk that expert in bitcoin or even not Elon Musk itself who hold the bitcoin. Perhaps, it is a cold storage wallet, it is hard to guess but perhaps I am thinking of the hardware wallet or even the paper wallet.

[bct-user]

Do we need the information of where the Bitcoins are stored? I don't think we don't need it. It even will lead the hackers planning to steal the Bitcoins. Moreover, as they bought a big number of Bitcoins, the information related to the places storing Bitcoin, will be very secret. They also may use certain services to disappear the transaction data, so it will be hard to track by hackers.

[Fatunad]

Why does it matter where those guys store their bitcoins ?
Even if anybody finds that information out, he/she shouldn't bring out that information since it is something private.
These kind of sensitive information should be kept private otherwise there are a good chances of hackers attacking you.

I have the same question on mind on how people do really need to find out on where these people do store up their coins?Yes, its true that they are famous
but doesnt mean that every single step that they would make would really be known by the public.Even if we do spot out on where they do purchase those
coins but we wont know on where those coins will be ending up to be stored up neither on a hardware wallet or a non custodial wallet.

[Yatsan]

For sure they are storing it in a highly classified and well established secured wallet so that no one can access those because to think that they have such a big amount of Bitcoin that they have obtained, surely lots of eyes are into them trying all sorts of ways to get their hands into those massive amount of Bitcoin knowing the value it have added by the fact that it can still grow even more possibly as time goes by. Well, wether we talk about it or not, surely those two are making their own move to be responsible into an extent that they are securing the safety of the cryptocurrencies in their hands for they know the consequences and possibilities of potential hacks.

[best123]

This is a question I have been asking time without numbers. I bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. Where did you store it? Or is there something we are missing? Or are they using their status to manipulate the market and enriched them selfs the more?
I am still inching to see the hash or wallet address where this is stored.

[Mpamaegbu]

After all the hype, does anyone have information on this? I reckon blockchain analytics should follow those coins of the new VIP of the bitcoin community and follow the movement of their coins.

To be honest, I believe Elon Musk already was into Bitcoin several years ago. He can't be that tech savvy and not tried Bitcoin or cryptos before now. It doesn't add up for me, knowing him as a risk taker. What just happened now with his open confession of acquiring some is just to get the media buzzing. Remember, it isn't just Bitcoin alone. He also supports Dogecoin. Again, what does anyone have to gain monitoring the movement of any other person's Bitcoin. Does it add anything to one? Well, except one is a research student on Bitcoin, otherwise it's a fruitless adventure.

[Trinx01]

No one knows because for sure that kind of information would only be exclusive for themselves but one thing for sure they are using only a hardware wallet which is a really good wallet for storing a huge amount of money unlike using a software wallet which is prone to attacks. They know that there is a huge possibility that a hacker is looking for them and trying to gain some info about them so for them to assure that their bitcoin is a pretty safe hardware wallet would be the answer.

[maydna]

After all the hype, does anyone have information on this? I reckon blockchain analytics should follow those coins of the new VIP of the bitcoin community and follow the movement of their coins.

I think we don't know for sure about that, and even if we know where he buys the bitcoin, we still difficult to find where he stores all of his bitcoin. I don't want to search for that because that is not my concern, which is not important for me. We don't need that because if we only search for their wallet, we will not have a chance to reach the goals that we really want to achieve. But if you still want to search for their wallet, you can try to search for that, but the question is, how you want to do with that information?

[Question123]

They have a lot of bitcoins so they need a secure wallet that can protect their bitcoin from the hacker and for sure they know what to do their coins because we are talking about millions up to billions worth of bitcoin. Maybe they secure the offline wallet not in the online wallet because we know once you are using online wallet it is prone to hacker because they have ways to hack wallet and I think also no attempt to hack Elon Musk bitcoin wallet because they know once they hack it Elon Musk will hire someone to find that hacker.

[taufik123]

This information is very personal and very sensitive. Therefore they keep their information and do not publish it. Some people who are trying to find this information may just be curious and there are some people who use the information for their news portals or for their research only.

What is certain is that people like Elon store their bitcoins in their own private wallets and with great security. the slightest information about their wallet will not be published, to guard against hacks and such.

[zanezane]

Not knowing where they store their bitcoins is the first line of defense against people that are trying to get their hands on it. I mean where they store their bitcoins is none of our business in my opinion, and as @taufik123 said, it is personal and sensitive. You do not ask a man about his money unless he tells them so we better be off somewhere that doesn't need inquiry.

[bL4nkcode]

Talking about a company that probably stores money on the company bank accounts, Tesla probably uses third party to store bitcoin either coinbase or any US based exchange.

Microstrategy is different on the other hand imo since Michael is somewhat a pro-bitcoin and even has lots of knowledge as financial literate, probably they use the most secured way to store their bitcoin - hardware wallet, but still a business needs their funds/assets to be insured in case of, and I guess it uses an exchange as well.