Electric vehicle company Tesla completed the transfer of all its Bitcoin holdings last week through a series of transactions. However, it is likely that Elon Musk’s company moved the coins to other wallets under its control, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence.
Arkham published the details of these movements on Tuesday via Twitter, as it monitors the cryptocurrency activities of Tesla, one of the largest publicly-traded companies to invest in Bitcoin.
According to Arkham, the Bitcoin had not been moved for two years prior to October 15. The coins were then transferred to seven new wallets believed to be owned by Tesla.
“We believe that the Tesla wallet movements that we reported on last week were wallet rotations with the Bitcoin still owned by Tesla,” Arkham stated.
Tesla has not immediately responded to Decrypt’s inquiries and has not addressed last week’s request to confirm these transfers.
Tesla initially invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in 2021. However, billionaire Elon Musk later expressed concerns about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining and subsequently sold most of the company’s holdings at a loss. As a result, Tesla ceased accepting Bitcoin payments for its cars.
Nevertheless, the company still holds 11,509 Bitcoin, which has significantly increased in value since Tesla began selling its holdings in 2022. As of now, these Bitcoin holdings are worth approximately $776 million.
The only publicly-traded companies holding a larger amount of Bitcoin than Tesla are U.S. Bitcoin miners Riot and Marathon, as well as software company MicroStrategy, which holds about $17 billion worth of BTC.
Edited by Andrew Hayward