Tesla Profits From Bitcoin Sales, Musk Denies Selling his Stash

Earlier this year, leading electric car maker Tesla made headlines within the crypto space after it announced the purchase of Bitcoin up to the tune of $1.5 billion.

In its first quarterly report of the year, the firm has now announced that the leading digital asset had made a $101 million "positive impact" on its finances after it sold a tranche of its holdings.

Per the report, the firm had generated net proceeds of $272 million from "volume growth, regulatory credit revenue growth, gross margin improvement driven by further product cost reductions improvement driven by further product cost reductions and sale of Bitcoin."

The report generated some level of responses on Twitter from the Youtuber and investor Dave Portnoy, who accused Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, of a Bitcoin pump-and-dump scheme to help him and his firm generate profits. According to Portnoy, Musk "pumps it. It goes up. Then he dumps it and makes a fortune."

Elon Musk, however, came out to deny this allegation, saying that it was only his company who sold 10 percent of its holdings to prove the "liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on the balance sheet." He also went on to reveal that "I have not sold any of my Bitcoin."