Elon Musk Curious If Converting Tesla's Balance Sheet To Bitcoin Is 'Even Possible'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk could do his shareholders a $100 billion favor by converting the automaker’s balance sheet to Bitcoin, his MicroStrategy Inc MSTR counterpart Michael Saylor suggested.

What Happened: Saylor made his comments in response to Musk poking fun at the apex cryptocurrency on Sunday.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

If you want to do your shareholders a $100 billion favor, convert the $TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC. Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a $1 trillion favor.

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) December 20, 2020

“Are such large transactions even possible?” Musk probed.

In response, Saylor offered to share his “playbook” with the Tesla CEO, saying, he had purchased over $1.3 billion in Bitcoin over the past few months. The only caveat? Saylor would only share such secrets offline.

Why It Matters: Coinbase, which filed for an IPO this month, facilitated a $425 billion purchase of Bitcoin for Microstrategy earlier in the year.

Virginia-based MicroStrategy raised $550 million in debt to fund the purchases in December. A Citi analyst downgraded the firm thereafter, calling Saylor’s focus on Bitcoin “disproportionate.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Twitter late Sunday, if any company wanted to hold cryptocurrency on its balance sheet, Coinbase could help.

Seems like more and more companies are starting to hold crypto on balance sheet, as a hedge against inflation. We can help https://t.co/KWYOemrDMO

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) December 21, 2020

Others that have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon include PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL and Jack Dorsey-led Square Inc SQ.

See Also: PayPal CEO On Cryptocurrency Expansion: 'Just The Beginning Of Opportunities'

Musk has been less than eager on Bitcoin, even though the cryptocurrency has surged above the $23,000 mark this month.  The billionaire entrepreneur caused a 20% surge in joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin earlier on Sunday with a tweet.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed nearly 6% higher at $695 on Friday and fell almost 2.6% in the after-hours session to $677. On the same day, MicroStrategy shares closed nearly 1.1% higher at $301.20. Bitcoin traded 0.76% higher at $23,680.81 at press time.

See Also: Elon Musk's 'Fav Cryptocurrency' Is A Joke But Its 2020 Returns Are No Laughing Matter

Photo courtesy of Forbes via Wikimedia