Why Tesla invested $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins and how it could affect its future

It is a 15-digit number.

Elon Musk, through his automaker Tesla, announced the purchase of $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins, the main cryptocurrency on the market.

The news caused the price of the digital currency to rise 17%, bringing each unit to a record price of $ 44,220.

Tesla said the purchase is an attempt to maximize the profitability of money that is not used in day-to-day business operations Despite deleting the message a few days later, the South African businessman continued to write about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as dogecoin, which appreciated 50% after being mentioned.

In a presentation to the stock market, Tesla said it "updated its investment policy" in January and now wants to invest in "reserve assets", such as digital currencies, gold bars or gold-traded funds.

The company explained that it had already purchased $ 1.5 billion in bitcoins and that it could "acquire and maintain digital assets" in the future.

"In addition, we hope to start accepting bitcoins as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially to a limited extent," Tesla said.

Musk said a week ago in a tweet that bitcoin was "about" to be more accepted by investors.

Inflection point?

Some analysts believe that Tesla's investment could be a tipping point for cryptocurrency.

"I think we will see an acceleration for companies looking to allocate resources for buying bitcoin now that Tesla has taken the first step," said Eric Turner, vice president of market intelligence at cryptocurrency research firm Messari.

"One of the largest companies in the world now has bitcoins and, by extension, all investors who own Tesla shares, or even just an S&P 500 [stock exchange] fund, are also exposed."

But Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, warned that bitcoin is a "very volatile" cryptocurrency.

"Tesla is now starting to take a lot of [currency] risks; this may not worry many investors, but the more conservative ones do," he said.

Without ballast?

Bitcoin, which has set historical records in recent months after a roller coaster ride in the past decade, has also received support from major financial institutions this year.