Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to assure the crypto community that he has not sold any of his personal BTC stash despite his company Tesla realizing profits from its recent Bitcoin (BTC) buys.
Musk’s comments came in response to accusations from comedian Dave Portnoy that the Tesla CEO had profited from a Bitcoin pump-and-dump engineered through his public statements supporting the cryptocurrency.
Rejecting Portnoy’s assertion, Musk stated that “Tesla sold 10% of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet,” adding:
“I have not sold any of my Bitcoin.”
No, you do not. I have not sold any of my Bitcoin. Tesla sold 10% of its holdings essentially to prove liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on balance sheet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021
As reported by Cointelegraph, Tesla sold a portion of its Bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2021, generating net proceeds of $272 million.
In February this year, the company catalyzed the crypto market bull run after disclosing a strategic acquisition of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin — worth 7.7% of its gross cash position at the time.
During the same month, Tesla also announced it would begin accepting BTC payments for its cars, emphasizing that it will store the funds in Bitcoin rather than convert them into cash.
Musk has typically shied away from disclosing how much Bitcoin he holds personally, but his latest tweet suggests he is reluctant to sell it.
At the time of writing, BTC has gained 3% over the past 24 hours to trade at $53,600, according to CoinGecko.