Why did the new rule help Tesla to get $ 600 million in bitcoin winning, but it can cost Microstrategy billion

• Tesla reported earlier this week about the $ 600 million profit related to its Bitcoin Holdings, which made up just over a quarter of its fourth quarter profite.

• The company managed to book these profits obtained from Bitcoin thanks to a change in the guidelines of the Committee on Financial Accounting for Crypto Property.

• Microstrategy could be responsible for billions of dollars of taxes due to the same changes in accounting rules.

A recent change in accounting rules may have helped to make a profit of $ 600 million on Bitcoin (Btcusd) shares for Tesla (Tsla) but the same rule could potentially leave Microstrateegy (Mstr) with a tax account for more billion dollars.

Approximately 26% of Tesla’s net revenue for the fourth quarter 2024. It came from his Bitcoin Holdings. The company has followed to book these profits from Bitcoin due to a change in Financial Accounting Standards Committee (FASB) Guidelines for cryptocurrency assets.

New Rules or ASU 2023-08 allow companies with Bitcoin Holdings to publish its value on a on the market the basis or depending on where the markets are traded.

“The primary advantage of new FASB rules concerning a new market rules on the market for corporate digital assets is that it will allow companies to be the value of its digital property in real time,” Miller & Company LLP Administrative Partner & CPA Paul Miller said is Investopedia.

According to the previous FASB guidelines, Bitcoin was treated as “unlimited intangible assets”, forcing companies to write down their value when prices fall, but prevent them from recording the gain unless the property is sold.

The old system frustrated the founder of Microstrategy, Michael Saylor, who claimed that it interfered with the adoption of bitcoin as corporate property assets.

Bitcoin was on a tear last year and remains strong this year. Based on new rules, Microstrategy’s Bitcoin buys Spree left it with approximately $ 18 billion in unrealized bitcoin gain, Wall Street Journal reported recently. This could create a tax account worth billions for microstrateegy.

This claims of the crypto property on his books made Microstrateegy potentially sensitive to 15% tax on Unrealized bitcoin gain According to the Law on Decreasing Inflation Corporate alternative minimum tax (Camt). This means that the company could face the tax on these gains from 2026, even without the sale of no coins – the risk he acknowledged in a recent regulatory submission.

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