Bitcoin Surpasses $40,000... Tesla Has Not Sold Bitcoin

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has recovered to $40,000 after about a month. Tesla's Bitcoin investment loss, which attracted attention, amounted to only $23 million.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to CoinMarketCap on the 26th (local time), Bitcoin recorded $40,368 at 3:20 PM that day. Since then, as of 4:50 PM, Bitcoin is trading at $37,953, up 3.8%.

This is the first time Bitcoin's price has surpassed $40,000 since the 16th of last month.

Bitcoin recently plunged to the $29,000 range, but it has shown strength for consecutive days after Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, said there is a high possibility that Tesla will resume Bitcoin payments.

In particular, the upward trend expanded over the weekend as reports emerged that Amazon is hiring cryptocurrency experts and will allow Bitcoin payments within the year.

Bloomberg reported that the rise in Bitcoin was driven by increased short covering, where futures short positions were liquidated as Bitcoin prices rose.

According to the cryptocurrency data company 'bybt,' more than $950 million worth of short positions were liquidated in a single day. This is the largest amount since May 19.

Tesla, which announced its earnings that day, reported a $23 million loss related to Bitcoin in the second quarter. During this period, Bitcoin fell by 40%, and some experts had predicted Tesla could face a $100 million loss due to the Bitcoin price drop.

This was due to accounting standards that require immediate reflection in the financial statements if Bitcoin's price falls below the purchase price.

Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, with an estimated average purchase price of $32,000. Tesla had previously disclosed a profit of $101 million from Bitcoin trading in the first quarter.

Additionally, Tesla explained that it did not sell any Bitcoin during the second quarter.

Some had claimed that Tesla would be confirmed to have sold a large amount of Bitcoin in the second quarter earnings report, but Musk emphasized that they did not sell.