CALIFORNIA (US) – Shares of companies, which have invested in bitcoin have widely excelled in terms of performance on Wall Street in 2021 and are expanding their gains thanks to Tesla betting on the soaring digital currency with $1.5 billion.
The price of bitcoin hit a record high over $48,000 on Tuesday for the second consecutive day after Tesla said on Monday that it had laid its hands on the digital currency and would soon embrace it as a form of payment for cars.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a fan of cryptocurrencies, recently announced about the addition of bitcoin to the electric car maker’s balance sheet. Soon after that, a bunch of companies, which were related to bitcoin, and are listed on US stock exchanges were also bolstered.
Tesla’s bitcoin purchase make up to a comparatively minor bet for the giant electric car company, which has seen growth in a fast pace, with an $800 billion stock market value. That said, it cemented the digital currency’s emerging credentials as a form of mainstream financial asset.
Tesla witnessed a gain after disclosing the investment on Monday, however, dipped 1.6% on Tuesday, thereby leaving its gain in 2021 at 20%, compared to the S&P 500’s 4% rise.
MicroStrategy, whose CEO Michael Saylor is an ardent bitcoin bull, saw a surge of 22% on Tuesday, bringing its gain this week to over 50%, and so far, it has seen a surge of over 200% in 2021. The business intelligence software company has bought about 71,079 bitcoins, now worth over $3 billion and equivalent to over a quarter of its $11.8 billion stock market value.
Payments company Square dipped almost 1%, leaving its 2021 gain at 19%. In October, Square said it purchased 4,709 bitcoins for about $50 million, which amounted to about 1% of its total assets by the end of the second quarter of 2020. Those bitcoins have now a value of over $200 million.