Electric carmaker Tesla has invested around eight per cent of its cash holdings in bitcoin, and said it may accept bitcoin from customers in the future as payment for electric vehicles.
The purchase was revealed in a company filing on Monday (US time) and was made possible after Tesla changed certain company policies to allow for investment in “alternative reserve assets”, including digital assets.
The company notes in the filing that the updated policy could also see it “accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future”, albeit “on a limited basis”.
Tesla also states in the filing that it has “invested an aggregate $1.50 billion ($A2 billion) in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term.”
The value of bitcoin surged 9% to a record $US42,709 ($A55,280) after the purchase was revealed, and Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk also pointed to the lesser-known Dogecoin which saw that cryptocurrency also surge in value.
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