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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Co-portfolio manager of the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing fund, an exchange-traded fund that tries to invest in digital currency technologies.Venuto’s fund holds a small amount of Bitcoin but mostly invests in companies that build around such technologies. Even with Tesla’s support, it could take some time before those who’ve made money investing in Bitcoin to use it to buy a car. Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds.com, doesn’t expect it to become commonplace because most people take loans to buy their vehicles or lease them and don’t pay in cash, said Plus, most people at present would not be comfortable taking a risk with cryptocurrency on such an expensive purchase, she said. Other experts say it’s just a matter of time before Bitcoin finds more widespread use in transactions. “I think the trend is inexorable,” said Richard Lyons, a finance professor at the University of California at Berkeley, predicting Bitcoin and other digital currencies “will become transactional currencies increasingly over the next five years. It’s not going to happen overnight.”Whether Tesla will get a definitive competitive advantage in accepting Bitcoin remains to be seen. The automaker could be simply investing in Bitcoin because Musk has been known to have eclectic tastes. Musk launched a Tesla car into space to demonstrate the payload capabilities of his SpaceX company rockets. Similar to Tesla, Virginia-based MicroStrategy Inc. announced in August that it would use some of the excess cash on its balance sheet to invest in alternative assets such as Bitcoin. The move has paid off so far. As of Feb. 2, the business analytics company said it held 71,079 Bitcoins that it purchased for an aggregate price of $1.15 billion since last summer. Using a value of $44,500, those bitcoins are worth $3.16 billion. MicroStrategy shares have risen 660% since the August announcement, but the shares are susceptible to swings in the price of Bitcoin. They closed up 29% Monday at $1,041.Palo Alto-based Tesla reported its first annual net profit in 2020, and its stock soared to make it the world’s most valuable automaker. Tesla joined the S&P 500 late last year and at a value of $824 billion makes up about 2% of the benchmark index. So, funds that track the S&P 500 now have some exposure to Bitcoin, however small that may be. ___AP Business Writers Tom Krisher in Detroit and Ken Sweet in Charlotte, North Carolina, and
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