Tesla CEO Elon Musk will now hold the title “Technoking of Tesla" following the electric car maker’s foray into Bitcoin and the digital asset's stunning surge, the company revealed in a rather unusual 8-K filing on Monday.
“Effective as of March 15, 2021, the titles of Elon Musk and Zach Kirkhorn have changed to Technoking of Tesla and Master of Coin, respectively. Elon and Zach will also maintain their respective positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer,” the filing, signed by Kirkhorn, stated.
Last month, Telsa (TSLA) revealed in a securities filing that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and expects to accept the cryptocurrency for its products in the future.
“In January 2021, we updated our investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity. As part of the policy, we may invest a portion of such cash in certain specified alternative reserve assets. Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy,” the company wrote in a 10-K filing with the SEC.
According to last month’s filing, Tesla said it expects to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for its products “in the near future,” where it’s permitted.
In late January, Musk discussed bitcoin during an interview on the popular voice chat app Clubhouse.
“I do think at this point bitcoin is a good thing. And, so, I am a supporter of bitcoin. Like I said, I was late to the party, but I am a supporter of bitcoin. And I think, bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” Musk said at the time.
Musk also briefly added #bitcoin to his Twitter profile, which has since been removed.
Over the weekend, Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) price hit a new high of $61,788. The digital asset was last trading near $55,286 on Monday morning.
Shares of Tesla were slightly lower in the pre-market near $690.
Read more: Zach Kirkhorn was recently featured in Yahoo Finance's The NEXT: 21 to watch in 2021.
Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.