Is Elon Musk Selling Bitcoin? Tesla Transfers All $760M of Its BTC to Unknown Wallets.

On-chain data shows wallets associated with Elon Musk's electric car company have been emptied.

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Elon Musk's Tesla, one of the biggest corporate owners of bitcoin (BTC), transferred all $760 million worth of the cryptocurrency that it owns to unknown wallets, raising the possibility the carmaker is selling.

Wallets associated with the electric car manufacturer began moving funds to unknown wallets on Tuesday, according to crypto data firm Arkham Intelligence.

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Tesla is the fourth-biggest holder of bitcoin among publicly traded U.S. companies in the U.S, per BitcoinTreasuries data. Only software company MicroStrategy and bitcoin mining firms Marathon Holdings and Riot Platforms have larger stockpiles.

Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in February 2021, but has sold most of its holdings over the years. When Arkham Intelligence added the car maker's bitcoin wallet tracking feature to its dashboard in March, it held about 11,509 bitcoin, worth roughly $770 million.

Musk had also previously announced that the company would soon accept payments made with bitcoin, but the plans were dropped shortly after due to environmental concerns.

Besides some of Musk's companies – including Tesla and SpaceX – that hold bitcoin on their balance sheets, it is unclear how much the X (formerly Twitter) owner believes in the token himself. In an interview broadcast on YouTube in July, Musk said that he thinks "there's some merit in bitcoin, and maybe some other crypto," but that his soft spot was for dogecoin (DOGE).

Edited by Nick Baker.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.

Tom Carreras is a markets reporter for CoinDesk. He holds BTC, ETH and SOL above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Helene is a New York-based reporter covering Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin ETFs and crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk's Markets Daily show. Helene is a graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.

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Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.

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