Four years ago, an offhand social media reply spawned an entirely new lane of financial speculation. Author Ben Mezrich declared he would never turn down getting paid in cryptocurrency, and Elon Musk simply replied, “Me neither.” What started as a viral moment in 2021 has steadily evolved into a concrete financial infrastructure across the billionaire’s business empire. Now, in early 2026, the convergence of new corporate accounting rules and the continued expansion of his payment network is turning that hypothetical salary into a technical possibility.
A Four-Year Joke Turns Into Corporate Strategy
The electric vehicle manufacturer currently retains exactly 11,509 coins in its corporate treasury, according to recent blockchain intelligence tracking. Back in February 2021, Musk shook the financial world when his company filed an official 8-K disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing a $1.5 billion cryptocurrency purchase. Within hours of the CEO adding a simple hashtag to his profile, the digital asset’s price surged by 20 percent.
The company did not hold onto everything indefinitely. Tesla sold off about 75 percent of its digital treasury during the 2022 supply chain shutdowns in China to maintain a strong cash position. However, the company held tight to its remaining holdings through the turbulent market cycles of 2024 and 2025.
To understand the scale of this corporate adoption, consider the timeline of the automaker’s relationship with digital money:
- Initial $1.5 billion corporate purchase disclosed in early 2021
- Brief window of accepting coins for new vehicle purchases
- Strategic sell-off during global pandemic manufacturing disruptions
- Stable holding pattern maintained through the 2024 regulatory shifts
Tesla Books $600 Million From an Accounting Shift
The fourth quarter earnings report for 2024 looked radically different because of a single regulatory update. For years, corporate treasurers hated holding volatile digital assets because traditional accounting rules required them to record any drop in value as a permanent loss, even if the price recovered the very next day. This discouraged widespread corporate adoption.
That changed when the Financial Accounting Standards Board introduced ASU 2023-08, a guideline that allows companies to report digital assets at fair market value. This accounting rule modification benefited corporate treasuries immensely, allowing them to finally show actual paper profits on their balance sheets rather than hiding behind outdated depreciation models.
By May 2025, the fair market value of the company’s stash reached $1.1 billion. This regulatory shift allowed the automaker to officially record a $600 million paper profit for the quarter.
| Accounting Era | Valuation Method |
|---|---|
| Pre-2024 Guidelines | Lowest recorded value requiring permanent impairment charges |
| 2025 FASB Update | Fair market value reporting reflecting actual current worth |
| Balance Sheet Impact | Immediate reflection of market gains as paper profits |
Under the new guidelines, digital assets can be marked to market, accurately reflecting fair value and dispelling the notion that Bitcoin is a dead asset on the books.
– Gadi Chait, Investment Manager at Xapo Bank
The Infrastructure for Crypto Payouts Already Exists
You do not need a traditional bank account if an application handles everything from messaging to money transfers natively. While Musk takes a $0 base salary from his automotive company, relying entirely on performance-based stock options, the mechanics of paying creators, staff, or executives in digital currency are nearly complete across his other ventures.
The social media platform X has secured money transmitter licenses in at least 39 states to operate its payment system. Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino confirmed the launch of X Money in early 2025, setting the stage for a peer-to-peer financial network that bypasses traditional banking entirely.
Industry insiders see the integration of digital assets as the logical next step for the platform. Senior Vice President of Payments at Fireblocks Ran Goldi noted during a February 2025 interview that the industry fully expects the platform will probably have the ability to pay out in cryptocurrencies by the end of the year.
Market Influence and the Mars Economy Vision
The billionaire’s influence over financial markets extends far beyond his own balance sheets. During a live chat on the Clubhouse application in February 2021, he explicitly stated that the digital coin was on the verge of broad acceptance by conventional finance people. Since then, his social media presence has consistently moved markets.
When he suggested people use the encrypted messaging application Signal instead of traditional alternatives, investors misunderstood the prompt. They flooded into an unrelated small company called Signal Advance, causing its stock trades to surge by 527 percent in a single Thursday trading session, followed by another 91 percent jump on Friday.
He has also entertained the idea that humanity’s interplanetary future will rely on decentralized ledgers. When an artificial intelligence researcher suggested that a future Mars economy will run on crypto, Musk simply replied, “Yes.”
Instances of his market-moving social media activity include:
- Endorsing alternative messaging applications leading to mistaken stock runs
- Adding specific cryptocurrency hashtags to his official biography
- Engaging with authors and researchers about interplanetary payment systems
Reaching Sustainable Mining Targets Changes the Equation
The biggest roadblock to corporate adoption was always the environmental footprint of securing the blockchain. In May 2021, the company famously suspended digital payments for vehicles, citing the heavy reliance on fossil fuels for mining operations.
The CEO stated that the company would resume accepting the currency once mining reached a threshold of 50 percent clean energy usage. According to a 2025 sustainability study by Bitbo researcher Daniel Batten, the network’s sustainable energy usage has now exceeded 55 percent, hitting an all-time high.
This sustainability milestone potentially clears the final hurdle for re-adoption. Whether it means buying cars or funding a peer-to-peer network, the initial 2021 social media exchange continues to shape real-world engineering decisions.
The lines between traditional corporate finance and decentralized money are blurring faster than analysts predicted just a few years ago. With a large shareholder-approved compensation package and a newly licensed payment network ready to deploy, the tools required to execute alternative salaries are finally operational. As developers continue testing the boundaries of #XMoney, it feels highly likely that the world’s most prominent advocate for #Bitcoin will eventually see his early prediction become a standard payroll option.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are volatile and carry significant risk. Always consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment or major financial decision.
