Elon Musk Tesla’s $1.31 billion Bitcoin stash delivers $80 million profit in Q3
Friday kicks off with Bitcoin circling around $111,000, XRP trying to hold above $2.40 after the week’s swings and stablecoin dominance slipping a bit from the peak but still uncomfortably high.
The morning feed is completely owned by three stories that every trader has open in a separate tab right now: Ripple’s Chris Larsen unloading an insane $764 million in XRP in seven years, JPMorgan finally turning Bitcoin and Ethereum into real Wall Street collateral and Elon Musk’s Tesla adding $80,000,000 in Bitcoin profit without touching a single coin.
The longest running subplot in XRP never really ends — Chris Larsen selling the token he helped build. According to CryptoQuant data, the Ripple cofounder has sold about $764,000,000 in XRP since 2018, and the pattern is nearly always the same: move coins out the door when the market looks the strongest. His latest transfer — 50,000,000 XRP valued near $120 million — went toward Evernorth Treasury.
The surprising twist is that even after all that selling, his wallets still hold an estimated $9 billion in XRP.
On the charts today, XRP is at $2.45 after bouncing from $2.19 earlier this month, but the technicals do not give bulls much comfort. The weekly Bollinger Bands keep the midline up at $2.76, while the lower band sits at $1.95, meaning there is still room for the price to slip under $2 without hitting the oversold zone.
The range between $2.50 and $2.60 is the make-or-break zone for any rebound, and if XRP cannot clear it, the next stops are $2.30 and then $2 flat, with $1.95 being the structural low.
Wall Street’s biggest bank is about to pull crypto directly into the secured lending system. According to Bloomberg’s recent piece, JPMorgan is preparing to let institutional clients post Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for loans by the end of 2025, relying on a third-party custodian to hold the assets.
The bank already accepts exchange-traded funds tied to crypto as collateral, but this move strips the wrapper off and brings the underlying coins themselves into play.
For Jamie Dimon’s bank, which spent years calling Bitcoin a “fraud” and a “pet rock,” it is a U-turn. The decision effectively puts BTC and ETH alongside equities, bonds and gold in the credit structure.
Competitors are already in deep: Morgan Stanley prepping access on E*Trade, Fidelity building custody, State Street and BNY Mellon rolling services.
Tesla, the only S&P 500 company that ever made Bitcoin (BTC) mainstream, just posted an $80 million unrealized profit from its crypto reserves in Q3. The auto producer holds exactly 11,509 BTC, which was worth $1.31 billion on Sept. 30.
That number is unchanged since mid-2022, when Tesla dumped about 75% of its original $1.5 billion buy. Since then, Musk has sat on the remainder, letting the price do the heavy lifting.
On the earnings sheet, Tesla reported revenue of $28.09 billion for Q3, up 12% from last year, and gross profit of $5.05 billion — barely 1% higher.
So while the core car business delivered mixed results, Bitcoin quietly cushioned the bottom line with a clean gain. The firm has not added to its position, nor does it accept BTC for vehicles, citing the energy mix of mining as the obstacle. The BTC bet of Tesla for now remains purely a treasury play.
The U.S. session into Friday is set up as a stress test. Not only is that the last working day of the week, but Bitcoin is holding just above $111,000 and has not cracked the ceiling at $114,000. XRP is pinned at $2.45 with founder wallets still leaning over the market, and stablecoin dominance at 7.14% shows that risk appetite is improving, but not all the way back.
The big question is whether Bitcoin can finally rip through $114,000 before the weekend or whether Friday closes with another flat chop and altcoins founder on low liquidity.
