• Arkham Intelligence uncovered the truth behind Tesla’s BTC transfers.
• Tesla remains the fourth-largest corporate Bitcoin holder.

Last week, the news of Tesla transferring nearly its entire Bitcoin [BTC] holding, worth $760 million at the time, to unknown wallets made headlines in the crypto sphere. 

These transfers fueled speculation of potential sell-offs. However, those concerns may not be warranted.

Arkham Intelligence has now come out stating that the electric car manufacturer still likely retains ownership of its BTC. 

The blockchain intelligence platform took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify,

“We believe that the Tesla wallet movements that we reported on last week were wallet rotations with the Bitcoin still owned by Tesla.”

Arkham Intelligence details Tesla’s BTC movements

According to Arkham Intelligence, Tesla’s BTC holdings had remained untouched for two years before the 15th of October.

The recent movement saw the king coin being split across seven different wallets, each holding between 1,100 and 2,200 BTC. 

The platform also highlighted that each of these wallets received test transactions, and all but one held a rounded figure of Bitcoin.

The two largest wallets, “1Fnhp” and “1LERL,” received 2,109.3 BTC and 1,900 BTC, respectively. 

Other wallets included “1D6Vh” with 1,800 BTC, “16QZn” with 1,700 BTC, “1QC2z” holding 1,600 BTC, “1Phab” with 1,300 BTC, and “1MGM8” receiving 1,100 BTC.

The reason for these transfers remains unclear, though Arkham noted speculation that Tesla might be moving the funds to a custodian. This could potentially be to secure a loan using the BTC as collateral.

How did Bitcoin’s price react?

Interestingly, the transfers did not have an impact on Bitcoin’s price. On the day of the transfers, the coin peaked at nearly $68,000 and continued to trend upward until a recent dip on 21st October.

At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $67,082, reflecting a 0.68% decline over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s trading volume also dropped by 20.28% over the past day.

Musk’s BTC reserves

Since Tesla’s recent transfers were made to wallets the company likely controls, thereby it still owned 11,509 Bitcoin. This was worth over $771 million at press time.

It is worth noting that Tesla is set to release its next earnings report on the 23rd of October 2024.

This could shed more light on Tesla’s BTC strategy and the reasons behind the recent wallet movements.

In addition to Tesla’s holdings, Musk’s other venture, SpaceX, retained 8,285 Bitcoin. These holdings, which have also not moved in two years, were valued at $556 million.