Tesla’s Bitcoin Holdings Unchanged in Q1

In both the first quarter and last year’s fourth quarter, Tesla did not buy or sell any bitcoin, nor did it record any impairments to the value of its bitcoin holdings because the price of bitcoin was essentially flat from the end of the previous quarter to the subsequent one.

In last year’s third quarter, Tesla also did not add to or reduce its bitcoin holdings, but was required to report a $51 million impairment to reflect the decline in the price of the cryptocurrency.

According to accounting rules for digital assets, if the price of an asset falls during a quarter, a company must report an impairment. But if the price increases, it is not reported as a gain on the balance sheet unless the asset is sold.

Tesla announced last February it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Later in Q1, the company trimmed its bitcoin position by 10%, a sale that boosted that quarter’s earnings by $272 million. Tesla didn’t buy or sell any bitcoin in the second quarter.

Overall, Tesla’s adjusted Q1 earnings per share came in at $3.22 versus the $2.26 expected by analysts, according to FactSet. Revenue came in at $18.8 billion against the $17.85 billion expected.

Tesla’s share price was rising 3.6% to $1,012.01 in after-hours trading Wednesday. Shares have dipped close to 3% since the beginning of the year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made headlines with his unsolicited $43 billion offer to take Twitter private.

A company call with analysts is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET (21:30 UTC).