Bitcoin Erases Gains After Tesla Discloses Second-Quarter Sales

Emily Nicolle, Bloomberg News

A Tesla Inc. Supercharger station stands illuminated at night in Rubigen, Switzerland, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has captivated the financial world by blurting out via Twitter his vision of transforming Tesla into a private company. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin fell for the first time in three sessions, erasing an earlier gain after Tesla Inc. disclosed that it sold about 75% of holdings of the cryptocurrency during the second quarter.

Tesla said a Bitcoin impairment affected its second-quarter earnings and that it has converted about 75% of its Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency.

The conversions added $936 million of cash to the balance sheet, Tesla said in its earnings statement Wednesday. The automaker didn’t specify the size of the impairment. Bloomberg Intelligence said July 15 that the quarterly results could include a Bitcoin-related charge of about $740 million.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed interest in Bitcoin and Dogecoin and at one point allowed customers to buy the company’s electric cars with Bitcoin. It later suspended the Bitcoin payment option citing environmental concerns about Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin had gained around 4.2% in trades earlier on Wednesday, but dropped as much as 1.6% into the red following Tesla’s announcement.