I just shared that Tesla has bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. In the filing with the SEC, the company has everything looking good and new.
Tesla could have invested in gold, but the fact that it chose Bitcoin shows how versatile the cryptocurrency is. When people choose to buy gold, they often do so with the idea of holding onto it for as long as possible — not spending it and just letting its value grow.
Honestly, I follow the metal markets since I deal with precious metals outside of CleanTechnica.
I have to in order to price my jewelry for custom orders. So I notice things. Some days, platinum is cheaper than gold. Other days, gold is cheaper than platinum. I have to keep an eye on these markets so I can buy the metals I want to work with at a price that is affordable.
I don’t work with solid gold often but the cost of solid gold also affects the cost of gold-filled wire–any type of metal that includes gold will be affected by the cost of gold. With this being said, Tesla did the right thing by investing in crypto instead of gold which is a bit more volatile than Bitcoin is at the moment.
Investopedia points out that “although the price of gold can be volatile in the short term, it has always maintained its value over the long term.” Meaning that if you need to use something as currency, gold may not be the best option. I depend on the volatility of the daily gold market to place my orders. But if I owned $1.5 billion worth of gold and needed to sell it fast, I may not get that back.
Also, Bitcoin is much more approachable as an actual currency than gold is today. Sure 1,000 or so years ago people were using gold and silver coins. But today is different and Bitcoin is a much safer alternative to gold when used as a currency.
Think about this: if Tesla wanted to allow you to buy a car with a gold bar, it would make for great headlines. Maybe a celebrity would do it just for fun. But Tesla’s market is the everyday person who drives an ICE car and Tesla wants to sell to that person. Odds are, that person may have Bitcoin and not gold bars in a vault somewhere.
If I had gold bars, I wouldn’t trade them in for a Tesla. Sure I love and support the company, but I like my shiny things.