Tesla buys $1.5b in Bitcoin and will accept the digital currency as payment

Bitcoin is up 330% in the past year and there are reasons to believe it could continue to go up… Or down as well…

On Feb. 8, Tesla announced its purchase of $1.5b worth of Bitcoin along with its plans to accept Bitcoin as payment. This would give Tesla…

• A potential boost in sales from adopting Bitcoin as a payment method.
• More exposure to the volatile nature of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is becoming mainstream…

In 2010, two large pizzas were ordered using Bitcoin — which became the first known transaction…-2020-12-02) involving the digital currency. As of Dec. 2020, 15,175+ businesses worldwide accept Bitcoin — a big move forward.

The acceptance of Bitcoin has grown in the last decade amongst investors, institutions and now, even large publicly traded companies. Traditionally, large companies keep their excess funds in cash or short-term investments. But now, there’s a new trend of holding Bitcoin instead.

In the past year, 3 public companies announced big purchases of Bitcoin…

• $3b — MicroStrategy ($MSTR)
• $1.5b — Tesla ($TSLA)
• $200m — Square ($SQ)

The CEOs of these companies are all big supporters of cryptocurrencies. By keeping a portion of their cash in Bitcoin, they expect to generate higher returns on the company’s excess capital.

Party like it’s 2017

The year when Bitcoin and other digital currencies reached record highs just to crash over 80% the following year. Today’s Bitcoin run may look similar to 2017 but there are several big differences…

• Large companies and funds are also holding Bitcoin — which could provide help prevent prices from crashing.
• Creation of platforms to buy/sell/hold crypto is leading to fewer hacks and fewer reports of stolen digital currencies.

But investors are worried about one thing — government regulation. On Jan. 21, Janet Yellen, the new US Secretary of Treasury, announced her intentions to limit the use of cryptocurrencies for illegal activities.

Regulations could negatively impact Bitcoin’s price in the short-term — but they could also lower the volatility of the currency and make it more attractive for larger institutions to invest.

For investors… Bitcoin everywhere

As Bitcoin and its underlying technology, Blockchain, grow — investors are seeing more opportunities to get invest in the technology:

• By investing in MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square, investors are now indirectly betting on the growth of Bitcoin.
• The Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF ($BLOK) invests in companies involved in blockchain technologies — the tech powering Bitcoin.
• Coinbase, a crypto exchange, is looking to go public via direct listing — in what could become one of the most anticipated companies to go public of 2021.

Learn more: Dogecoin? Here’s what you need to know about Bitcoin’s distant cousin.