Tesla’s Q1 adjusted earnings figure left out a $97 million crypto loss
While its actual net income figure slid more than 70% on Tuesday in one of its worst quarters in years, Elon Musk’s company managed to make adjusted earnings look slightly more presentable after excluding ~$97 million in crypto losses from the figure. The big omission bumped non-GAAP earnings by about 12%, per Bloomberg analysis.
Critiqued by some as “earnings before the bad stuff,” non-GAAP figures offer an often rosier picture by excluding one-off events and expenses — in this instance, Tesla’s losses from the roller-coaster ride that crypto’s been on recently.
Though digital assets aren’t part of Tesla’s core operations, the SEC often pays attention to consistency in what companies bake into their unofficial earnings metrics. When Musk’s company reported an extra $600 million crypto boost at the end of last year, that additional income showed up in its non-GAAP figure for the period.
Even after offloading millions of dollars of Bitcoin since 2021, Tesla is still the seventh-largest reserve of the cryptocurrency, with around $1 billion in holdings, data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows.
Critiqued by some as “earnings before the bad stuff,” non-GAAP figures offer an often rosier picture by excluding one-off events and expenses — in this instance, Tesla’s losses from the roller-coaster ride that crypto’s been on recently.
Though digital assets aren’t part of Tesla’s core operations, the SEC often pays attention to consistency in what companies bake into their unofficial earnings metrics. When Musk’s company reported an extra $600 million crypto boost at the end of last year, that additional income showed up in its non-GAAP figure for the period.
Even after offloading millions of dollars of Bitcoin since 2021, Tesla is still the seventh-largest reserve of the cryptocurrency, with around $1 billion in holdings, data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows.
