Will other companies follow Tesla’s lead and load up on Bitcoin?

Will other companies follow Tesla’s lead and load up on Bitcoin?

Will other companies follow Tesla's lead and load up on Bitcoin?Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, is known for bucking convention, so his company's purchase of Bitcoin is not surprising.Credit...Mike Blake/ReutersBy Ephrat Livni and Jason KaraianFeb. 9, 2021, 8:59 a.m. ETCryptocurrency prices are soaring after Tesla said that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin with company funds. The electric carmaker wasn't the first company to shift corporate cash into cryptocurrencies, but it was one of the biggest. It could make finance chiefs elsewhere consider whether they should follow suit, the DealBook newsletter reports.Tesla's move is an “exclamation point” for institutional acceptance of Bitcoin, said Matthew Graham, the chief executive of the Beijing-based blockchain investment firm Sino Global Capital. “It's clear that Bitcoin is ready for Main Street.”Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, is known for bucking convention, so his company's purchase is not as surprising as it would be at, say, Ford or General Motors.Tesla had more than $19 billion in cash at the end of 2020, a big enough cushion to make the Bitcoin purchase a relatively small share of its resources. But much of that cash was raised in recent stock sales, and the company only recently reported