Up to 5% of public corporations are going to follow Tesla’s Bitcoin purchase, says analyst Wedbush

According to Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, Tesla’s strategic acceptance of Bitcoin would have a dramatic impact on corporate digital asset adoption.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Ives said that Tesla’s Bitcoin exposure is “not just a fad,” but part of a long-term strategy driven by an investment thesis and business thesis.

“I think Tesla is going to double down on its Bitcoin investment,” he said.

“No doubt this is something that Musk and Tesla — they’re going to dive into the deep end of the pool on Bitcoin because they’re not just doing it from an investment perspective but from a transaction perspective.”

Ives pointed to the latest decision by Tesla to allocate $1.5 billion to Bitcoin and continue to embrace the digital asset as a payment form. According to cointelegraph.com, Tesla had made around $1 billion in paper gains on its BTC trading at the time of the interview. “That’s more than they’ve made from a profit in all of the EV sales in 2020,” he said.

Wedbush Securities expects that within the next 12 to 18 months, 3 percent to 5 percent of publicly listed firms will go down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, but their adoption will be limited to investments only, Ives added. Without further regulatory clarification around BTC, the 5 percent threshold is unlikely to be broken.