Tesla took a $34 million impairment charge on its bitcoin holdings last quarter as crypto values plunged

• Tesla reported a $34 million impairment charge on its bitcoin holdings last quarter, according to its recent earnings report.
• The value of its bitcoin assets fell from $218 million in the third quarter to $184 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

Tesla took a $34 million impairment charge on its bitcoin holdings last quarter, according to figures from the EV maker's latest earnings report.

The company didn't buy or sell any bitcoin in the fourth quarter, leaving its holdings steady at 10,725 bitcoin.

But the continued sell-off in the crypto market late last year sent the value of Tesla's bitcoin to $184 million at the end of last quarter from $218 million in the third quarter.

Bitcoin fell 20% over the last two months of 2022, largely due to the collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges at the time. The event fueled a steep drop in the global market value of cryptocurrencies, though bitcoin has surged 38% from the start of 2023.

That means the accounting may look different for Tesla in the current quarter, barring another steep crypto dive. Bitcoin is now trading at $23,124, bringing the current value of Tesla's bitcoin holdings up to $248 million.

Tesla is among the top five public companies that hold bitcoin, according to data from Buybitcoinworldwide, and CEO Elon Musk is a die-hard crypto enthusiast.

Previously, he touted bitcoin and dogecoin to his Twitter followers, and publicly mulled converting a large chunk of Tesla's balance sheet into BTC in late 2020 before the company revealed a $1.5 billion investment in the cryptocurrency in 2021.

But Musk later criticized bitcoin for its high carbon emissions, and Tesla has dialed back its exposure to the cryptocurrency. The company sold 10% of its bitcoin holdings in early 2021, and dumped 75% of Tesla's bitcoin holdings mid-last year.