SpaceX Posts Q1 Profit, Abandons Bitcoin Holdings; Cryptocurrencies Crash

HARRISON MILLER
08/18/2023

New SpaceX financial documents reported by the Wall Street Journal provide a rare look into Elon Musk's private rocket company. Cryptocurrency prices swung wildly after the late Thursday report, which revealed SpaceX sold its bitcoin holdings.

SpaceX posted a Q1 2023 profit of $55 million on $1.5 billion in revenue after two years of major, but narrowing losses, the WSJ reported.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company recorded $5.2 billion in total expenses for 2022, increasing from $3.3 billion in 2021. Fiscal 2022 revenue doubled to $4.6 billion with a loss of $559 million, improved from a loss of $968 million the year prior.

SpaceX generated $2 billion in capital from issuing stock last year, up from $1.5 billion in 2021. The company is valued around $150 billion following an employee stock sale in June.

Property and equipment expenses totaled $5.4 billion during last year and 2021 with significant research and development costs.

Meanwhile, results benefited from several moves. The company executed price increases for Falcon rocket missions. SpaceX boosted its Starlink prices for U.S. residential subscribers in 2022. In April, SpaceX raised the price of Starlink services by 9% to $120 per month for residential customers where internet capacity is limited. Subscribers in locations with excess internet capacity received a price cut to $90 from $110.

The company launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites on Wednesday and the Falcon 9 returned to earth that evening. The next SpaceX launch is scheduled for Aug. 21. The next mission in the company's collaboration with NASA is set to launch Aug. 25.

SpaceX Sells Bitcoin Holdings

SpaceX sold its bitcoin holdings after writing down the value by $373 million in 2021 and 2022, the WSJ reported. Tesla (TSLA) had sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings last year.

Meanwhile, bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrency prices tumbled late Thursday, but it was unclear if the SpaceX report was the cause.

Crypto liquidations reached over $1 billion over the past 24 hours as of Friday morning, Coinglass data shows. The bitcoin drop below $28,500 caused "material volumes" of long-bitcoin orders being liquidated, combined with spot-selling ahead of order dates. That sparked the main sell-off, Decentral Park Capital trader Lewis Harland told CoinDesk.

Bitcoin price fell as low as $25,392.05 Thursday evening, hitting a two-month low. It's trading near $26,000 late Friday, down 6.6% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin had already retreated from about $28,600 to $27,600 on Thursday before the SpaceX news, as a strong dollar and risk-off trading weigh on cryptocurrencies.