Tesla Moves $769 Million Worth of BTC Assets to Unknown Wallets, Sparking Sell-Off Speculation

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

America’s foremost electric car manufacturer, Tesla, has quietly moved over $769 million worth of its BTC assets to several unknown wallets in a move that has sparked speculation within the crypto community.

The transactions were picked up by onchain tracker Arkham Intelligence which revealed that wallets linked to Tesla began making a series of transactions on October 15 following small test transactions.

Upon successful test transactions, the Tesla-linked wallets proceeded to move a total of 11,500 BTC, valued at $769 million at the time of the transactions, to seven different unknown addresses.

This marks the first time that Tesla has moved its crypto assets since June 17, footprints in the sand that appear to be heading towards a sell-off by the electric car maker.

So far, Tesla has not made an official statement on the move or whether it plans to sell off its BTC assets with analysts and market watchers awaiting Tesla’s upcoming Q3 Earnings report, slated to be released on October 23, for possible statements on the move by Tesla.

An X observer, however, 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 hinted at the possibility of the EV car maker looking to begin accepting Bitcoin once again 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 noted.

Tesla and Bitcoin

Tesla last sold Bitcoin in June 2022 and has not made any 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 begin accepting Bitcoin as a payment for its vehicles.

However, this move didn’t last long as Tesla suspended it a few months later following growing concerns over the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, particularly the heavy reliance on fossil fuels, such as coal, to power the mining operations.