Analysts believe reporting requirements may compel Tesla to announce a paper-drawdown of between $25 million and $100 million on its $1.5 billion Bitcoin bet.
Bitcoin’s second-quarter price battering has pundits speculating that Tesla may have to report a loss of up to $100 million for Q2.
With the price of Bitcoin recently dropping to revisit levels last seen in January, CNBC business analyst Kate Rooney asserted on July 6 that Tesla may face an “impairment charge” — requiring it to report the drawdown in a disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
She noted that as Tesla first disclosed its $1.5 billion in Bitcoin purchases in February, onlookers believe the electric vehicle manufacturer may have been underwater at the end of the quarter.
“Tesla holds crypto as an intangible asset and because of accounting rules, when Bitcoin's value drops below a certain amount, companies have to mark that down in their financial statements,” Rooney said, adding:
“Tesla says if Bitcoin's price falls below the carry cost, or where Tesla bought it, at any time after they bought it, an impairment cost is recognized.”
The analyst claimed that unnamed sources estimate the impairment charge could result in a loss of between $25 million and $100 million for Tesla on paper.
However, Rooney added that Tesla also cannot mark up the price of the BTC it holds until the position is realized in the form of a sale.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has become a highly polarizing figure to the crypto community in recent months, with the firm’s Bitcoin investment and support for BTC payments helping ignite rallies into new all-time highs for the asset.
However, a combination of Tesla suspending BTC payments over concerns regarding the environmental impact of mining, and Musk’s persistent Twitter-based Dogecoin proselytizing, the business magnate has fallen out of favor with much of the crypto community.
Roughly 11 hours ago as of this writing, Reddit user “StablecoinsFraud” posted a screenshot of a tweet they claim Musk deleted after it pushed up BTC prices. “Elon Musk has deleted a post he posted last night that pumped the Bitcoin price. Someone in his ear?” they wrote.
