Did Elon Musk Sell His Bitcoin? What We Know, What We Don't

Elon Musk and his company SpaceX have been blamed on social media for the recent plunge of bitcoin, one of the most well-known cryptocurrencies in the world—but the billionaire may have little to do with the price dive.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Musk's SpaceX wrote down the value of its bitcoin holdings by $373 million in 2022 and 2021. A few hours later, the value of bitcoin dropped by 9 percent and was trading around $26,400 just before 7 p.m., as reported by CNBC.

What exactly happened, and how much of it can be considered Musk's doing?

In its exclusive report, the WSJ cites documents showing the financials of the "secretive" rocket launcher and spacecraft manufacturer, stating that the privately held company made $55 million in profit on $1.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2023, according to preliminary results—reversing what has been a two-year negative trend for SpaceX.

The report said that the company "wrote down" the value of bitcoin it owns by $373 million in the past two years, and has sold the cryptocurrency—an approach similar to that previously taken by Tesla, another company owned by Musk.

Musk has long been a supporter of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, which has led to a $258 billion lawsuit against him for allegedly running a pyramid scheme in support of the meme-based coin. He has been accused of deliberately driving up Dogecoin's price over the past two years, damaging investors. Musk's legal team has previously called the lawsuit a "fanciful work of fiction" and has sought the dismissal of the case.

Social media users alleged that Musk's SpaceX "sold all" of its bitcoin. However, per the WSJ report, the company wrote down its value and "sold the cryptocurrencies."

Writing down the value of Bitcoin is not an out-of-the-ordinary move for companies, and it hardly causes such a stir in the crypto market.

What we don't know from the newspaper's report is whether SpaceX sold all of its bitcoin or a part of it and when. As of Friday, SpaceX has not revealed how much bitcoin it currently holds, if any.

Newsweek contacted SpaceX for comment by email on Friday.

After purchasing bitcoin, companies record their value on their account at that specific point in time, according to a Reuters report from March 2021. Whenever the value of bitcoin drops, a company must write down the value of its holdings in its books and refer to it as an impairment charge. The company then cannot write up the value of its assets on its balance sheets.