Tesla officially holds Bitcoin, and Coinbase platform helps it buy it

The US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been helping large companies invest in Bitcoin. It is reported that Tesla, which previously announced that it would purchase $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, is one of Coinbase's many financially strong corporate clients.

Tesla made headlines earlier this month when it revealed a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. Tesla disclosed in its annual report that the Bitcoin purchase would help "diversify and maximize returns on cash reserves that are not required to maintain liquidity for the company's operations."

Coinbase declined to comment on the report.

Sources familiar with the transaction said Coinbase executed Tesla's Bitcoin purchases over a period of several days in the first week of February.

Similar to how Coinbase executed its bitcoin purchase for MicroStrategy, the order was routed to several OTC trading desks.

Coinbase wrote in the MicroStrategy case:

“By using Coinbase’s proxy OTC desk and suite of routing and algorithmic trading tools, Coinbase was able to help MicroStrategy obtain its desired buy price without causing market impact, while beating the market VWAP [volume-weighted average price] in the process.”

The unnamed source said Coinbase’s prime brokerage unit has more than five Fortune 500 companies as clients. As previously reported, Coinbase is preparing to go public on the Nasdaq this year.

News of Tesla buying $1.5 billion in Bitcoin is still driving Bitcoin higher. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz predicted in an exclusive report in mid-January that Elon Musk would make a move to buy Bitcoin.

With Bitcoin trading above $50,000, there has been increasing discussion around large companies investing in the digital asset as a store of value. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square was another early adopter of Bitcoin, purchasing $50 million of the cryptocurrency last October.

Original article: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/95146/coinbase-tesla-bitcoin-buy

By Frank Chaparro and Ryan Weeks

Compiled by: Kyle