Tesla is making a fortune in bitcoin.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it would buy $1.5 billion in bitcoins. This turned out to be a strong bet by the electric car maker. In its first-quarter results, Tesla told shareholders that it could have made a $101 million profit by selling 10% of its holdings, totaling $272 million in bitcoin digital assets. According to the Wall Street Journal, this represents almost a quarter of the company's total quarterly profit.

To put this in perspective, the delivery of more than 184,000 vehicles brought Tesla's total quarterly sales to $10.4 billion. Of that amount, $438 million was net income. In other words, bitcoin sales, which only require a mouse click, accounted for a quarter of Tesla's profits. In other words, they didn't have to press steel or manufacture batteries. It is rare for any company to be able to make more than $100 million in profit so easily.

Tesla's $1.5 billion purchase of Bitcoin took the cryptocurrency market by surprise and drove up its value early this February. Along with the massive asset purchase, Elon Musk announced that it was possible to buy Tesla with bitcoins.

All of this is tremendous news for Tesla, which had been operating at a loss for years. Its current market valuation is $700 billion, five times that of Ford. Odd, considering that Ford sold 500,000 cars in the U.S., twice as many as Tesla sold worldwide. Investors seem to strongly believe in Elon Musk's electrification vision.

At this point, Tesla is projected to reach 800,000 sales in 2021. No wonder companies like Volkswagen, Audi, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Cadillac, Ford, Hyundai, and Mercedes are all introducing EVs. Due in part to environmental regulations imposed by the European Union and the United States, EVs have become the mainstream of the global automobile market. And honestly, what car company doesn't want the insane stock prices that Tesla currently covets?

Among the EVs expected to appear in the next few years, one should keep an eye on the Ford Mustang Mach E GT, Toyota bZ4X, Mazda MX-30, Audi Q4 e-Tron, Mercedes EQS, and Volvo Polestar 2. All of these are products of automakers with a history of producing consistent, high-quality products. Quality control and consistency is something Tesla has struggled with, even with the Model Y that shipped earlier this year.