SpaceX now holds $1 Billion of Bitcoin

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SpaceX’s Arkham entity temporarily reached a total holdings value of over $1 billion, before dropping back down again. The aerospace company owned by Elon Musk began acquiring Bitcoin back in 2021 and has seen its value appreciate substantially. 

The company currently holds 8.28k BTC. At its peak, SpaceX held 28k BTC - it has reduced its holdings by over 70%.

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The company offloaded two large chunks of its Bitcoin stack in May and June of 2022, during the crypto winter. Tesla offloaded some of its Bitcoin holdings around this time as well. Also occurring in May of 2022 was the Terra stablecoin meltdown and the collapse of FTX was to occur just a few months later. 

The value of SpaceX’s holdings reached $1 billion after Bitcoin reached a new ATH of $124,457 on Wednesday. 

Bitcoin is surging off the back of a lower-than-expected CPI report. Markets were expecting US CPI to be 2.8% but were pleasantly surprised by a 2.7% increase. The result increases chances of a September rate cut. 

The entire crypto industry has benefitted from increased institutional interest this year with total crypto market cap reaching $4.19T on 14th August before dropping back. 

Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Tesla, can be considered some of the earliest institutions to buy Bitcoin as a treasury asset. The crypto treasury method, popularised by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, has been one of the breakout trends this cycle with companies like MetaPlanet, BitMine and SharpLink Gaming piling in. 

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Musk’s attitude to Bitcoin has been ambivalent at best. In February 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and began accepting it as payment. Around this time, Musk was also posting about Dogecoin. 

But in May, Musk claimed that the process of mining Bitcoin was too fossil fuel intensive and he suspended payments, causing a significant market crash.