Vitor Constâncio, who served as vice president of the European Central Bank until May 2018, wrote on Twitter that the SEC is likely to be looking into what happened. He added: “It was not disclosed when Tesla had made this investment. In December, Musk said that Tesla could buy Bitcoin, and this was followed by many statements that he supported Bitcoin. Bitcoin kept going up and the Tesla investment has appreciated.”
Mr Musk followed up his market-moving Twitter profile change with the message “In retrospect, it was inevitable” – seen by some as a reference to the spike in the currency’s price. He removed the Bitcoin reference from his profile several days later.
In its filing, Tesla said its investment policy changed in January and added: “Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $US1.5 billion in Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin jumped again when the investment was announced on Monday, netting a $268 million paper profit for Tesla on that day alone.
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Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. The SEC declined to comment.
Bitcoin is worth more than the Russian ruble after the price of the digital currency surged following Tesla’s investment. The total value of all Bitcoin in circulation is now $US860 billion, according to Coinmarketcap data. That is more than the value of all 58.6 trillion rubles, worth $US792 billion.
The Daily Telegraph, London
