Bitcoin Rises Back Above $45,000 As Elon Musk Confirms Telsa Hasn't Sold Off Its BTC Holdings

Tesla CEO Elon Musk cleared the air on rumors flying around about the company selling their Bitcoin. 

In the first quarter of 2021, the electric vehicle company purchased about $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, of which about 10% was sold to boost the company's revenue. According to Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla's chief financial officer, the company sold the 10% in order to earn a return on its excess cash balance as few opportunities were present in the traditional trading methods. 

When last week, Elon Musk via his Twitter account, announced that the company would no longer be accepting the number one crypto coin as payment for its cars - a decision it made in March, Bitcoin enthusiasts considered the possibility of the company selling off all of its Bitcoin as well, completely divesting itself from the digital asset.

However, on Monday, Musk, in response to a tweet from Bitcoin Archive blaming him for the massive drop in Bitcoin price, clarified that Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin. 

On Sunday, Elon Musk replied to a tweet by Twitter user, cryptowhale, who joked that with the amount of hate Musk was getting, Tesla could dump the rest of their Bitcoin holdings.

The one-worded response, "Indeed", set crypto Twitter alit, with some users claiming it was confirmation that the company indeed sold off all of its Bitcoin. The price of the coin went down about 8% to about $43,000, with a low of $42,212 as a result of that tweet - according to or CoinDesk.

When Elon tweeted that Telsa would start accepting payment for its vehicles in Bitcoin, the price of the digital asset went up. Likewise, when he tweeted that the company would stop accepting the coin as payment, the price of the coin went down by about 15%, going from about $53,000 to $46,000 in minutes. That single tweet contributed to the erasure of about $360 billion from the Bitcoin market capitalization, which has sent a lot of criticism down Musk's way. He has been accused of reckless tweeting and having way too much influence on the market.

After confirming on Monday that Telsa hasn't sold a single more Bitcoin, the price of the coin has pushed back above $45,000. Currently trading at $45,206, the coin has lost about 18% of its value in the last five days, although it has gained an overall 56% this year. Some coins which have outperformed it this year include Ethereum, which has gained 372% this year, and Dogecoin, which has seen a rise in the value of 10,500%.

Shares of Tesla however shed 2.19% on Monday's stock market, although it isn't certain if the loss is linked to the CEO's twitter reply. The company's shares have lost a total of 27% in the last three months. The stock TSLA currently stands at $576.83.