Elon Musk's car production firm, Tesla has bought about $1.5bn (£1.1bn) of cryptocurrency Bitcoin, causing the price of Bitcoin to jump 17% to $44,220, a record high.
Tesla also announced that the company will start accepting bitcoin as payment for it's products in the nearby future as the company was trying to maximise returns on cash that is not being used in day-to-day running of the company.
The move by billionaire Musk, comes days after Musk added "#bitcoin" to his Twitter profile page, another move that drove up the price.
Musk regularly talks up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencie
In a stock market filing on Monday, February 8, Tesla said it "updated its investment policy" in January and now wanted to invest in "reserve assets" such as digital currencies, gold
bullion or gold exchange-tradedTesla also said it will start accepting payments in bitcoin in exchange for its products "subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis." That would make Tesla the first major automaker to do so. The $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin will give Tesla liquidity in the cryptocurrency once it starts accepting it for payments.
Tesla's move into bitcoin represents an investment of a significant percentage of its cash in the investment. The company had more than $19 billion in cash and cash equivalents on hand at the end of 2020, according to its most recent filing.
