Daily Flash | Tesla Announced 75% of Bitcoin Holdings Sold, Crypto Market Showed Mixed Reactions

Today's Headline - Tesla sold $936M or 75% of digital assets in Q2

In Q1 of 2021, when Tesla invested $1.5 billion into the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, the company said the decision was a matter of becoming more flexible, diversifying, and picking up returns from its cash holdings.

In its Q2 earnings statement on Wednesday, the electric car manufacturer said it had converted approximately 75% of its Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency for an average price of around $29,000 per Bitcoin, and those sales have added $936 million in cash to its balance sheet.

Commenting on the company’s decision, Elon Musk said,

“The reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the Covid lockdowns in China would alleviate so it was important for us to maximize our cash position. This should be not taken as some verdict on Bitcoin.”

Tesla did not sell any of its Dogecoin (DOGE) holdings, Musk also said on the conference call.

However, when asked about Bitcoin’s potential as an inflationary hedge on the earnings call, Musk said that Tesla’s main goal is to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy, and called Bitcoin “a sideshow to a sideshow.”

Chart of the Day - Top 10 Projects by P/E Ratio

As of this writing,
Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at around $23,264, up 0.4% in the past 24 hours,
while Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,527, or down 0.7% during the same period.
Major altcoins such as Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cosmos (ATOM) are down between from 2% - 6%.

Notable gainers include:
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) at $12.11 (+10.4%),
Monero (XMR) at $151.3 (+4.4%),
dYdX (DYDX) at $2.39 (+5.3%),
Lido DAO (LDO) at $1.59 (+2.5%).

Wednesday started on a positive note with Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $24,300, but it ended in the red after Tesla revealed in its Q2 earnings statement that it had sold 75% of its Bitcoin. The news brought BTC back from its daily high of $24,280 to $22,900, before stabilizing around $23,500.

While the pullback for Bitcoin has thus far been relatively mild, multiple altcoins experienced steeper declines as recent price runups created a nice opportunity for traders to book some gains.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.035 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.7%. Analyst Venturefounder pointed out that the rally was largely macro-driven and Bitcoin’s correlation with NASDAQ remained at a historical high of 91%.

BTC broke and closed above the 50-SMA ($22,966) and the resistance at $23,363 on July 19. The 20-EMA ($21,461) has started to turn up as well and the relative strength index (RSI) has risen into the positive territory.

If buyers sustain the price above $23,363, the bullish momentum could pick up further and the BTC/USDT pair could rally to the pattern target of $28,171. On the other hand, if the bears manage to pull the price below the 20-EMA, it will indicate that the recent breakout may have been a bull trap.

Ether’s (ETH) has reached near the strong resistance at $1,700, although the bears tried to pull the price down on July 19 but the bulls did not give in.

If the price of ETH turns down from $1,700 and breaks below $1,493, the bears will attempt to pull the price toward $1,280. On the other hand, if buyers drive the price above $1,700, ETH could rise to the psychological level of $2,000 and then to $2,200, according to Cointelegraph analyst Rakesh Upadhyay.

Influencer of the Day - Ethereum liquid-staking solution Lido Finance Co-Founder Vasily Shapovalov discusses the future of Ethereum at EthCC: Cointelegraph report

As a co-founder of Lido, Shapovalov has a heavy focus on technical developments, including making the algorithm and designing the protocol for withdrawals after the Merge. Secondary priorities include updating governance protocols and improving algorithms for the selection of validators.

When asked about his view on Ethereum’s position in the crypto ecosystem in the next two years, Shapovalov said,

“The Merge upgrade is like changing the engine on a plane mid-flight. We are overhauling everything from the consensus algorithm to the execution environment. We know some implications of this change on elements like blockchain security, but it’s not guaranteed.”

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Author: Gate.io Researcher Peter L.
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