The electric car maker became a proxy for investors looking to take a position in the cryptocurrency without buying it directly, but its recent jettisoning of $936 million of BTC suggests the company wasn’t all that committed to the asset.
Bitcoin fell slightly in Thursday trading as investors continued to absorb the aftershocks of Tesla's (TSLA) decision to shed $936 million in bitcoin from its balance sheet during its second quarter.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $23,100, down more than a half percentage point over the past 24 hours. The second, consecutive daily decline following an early week rally underscored Tesla CEO Elon Musk's influence among digital asset investors. Musk's utterances about bitcoin and dogecoin (DOGE) have sent markets for those assets intermittently soaring and plunging for much of the past two years.
Ether, the second-largest crypto by market cap, was changing hands just below $1,600, up more than 3% over the same period. Other major altcoins were in the green of a mostly dark shade, with Cosmos' ATOM and Polygon's MATIC climbing more than 13% and 8%, respectively, at one point.
(Source: Coindesk)
