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Tesla Drops Bitcoin Bombshell to Begin the Week, Sparking Crypto Chaos

The financial revolution won’t be televised…it will be Tweeted.

Thanks to the bizarre saga surrounding Reddit, GameStop, and Wall Street, a number of younger, less-experienced investors are being given a taste of the volatility of the stock market in a big way.

The so-called “meme stock” influence has been the talk of the town over at CNBC and on Wall Street itself, as “retail investors”, (those using apps and trading little by little), begin to exert their own forces on the long-stuffy Wall Street ecosystem.

Beyond the GameStop craze, however, a number of these younger investors are also looking at using cryptocurrencies such as BitCoin or DogeCoin to improve their economic standing.

As it turns out, some of the most market-savvy minds on the planet seem to have the same idea.

Tesla announced Monday it has bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it bought the bitcoin for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”

Tesla also said it will start accepting payments in bitcoin in exchange for its products “subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis.” That would make Tesla the first major automaker to do so. The $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin will give Tesla liquidity in the cryptocurrency once it starts accepting it for payments.

Tesla’s move into bitcoin represents an investment of a significant percentage of its cash in the investment. The company had more than $19 billion in cash and cash equivalents on hand at the end of 2020, according to its most recent filing.

Tesla owner Elon Musk has been in the thick of it recently, at least in terms of this new Wall Street reckoning, consistency promoting the use of cryptocurrencies via Twitter.

Bitcoin reached all time highs on Monday after the news of Tesla’s purchase.

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