Buried deep within Tesla's (TSLA  ) latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing was the news that the automaker invested $1.5 billion into Bitcoin. This investment makes Tesla the second-largest corporate holder of the crypto on the planet, according to Bloomberg News. And Tesla is just the latest in a string of blue-chip Bitcoin backers attempting to lend legitimacy to the infamously volatile cryptocurrency.

The larger question is whether traditional investors will hop aboard the Tesla driven hype-train or whether they'll continue to waver on the fence when it comes to Bitcoin?

Other Bitcoin backers, like PayPal (PYPL  ) and BlackRock (BLK  ), either merely invest in Bitcoin or simply allow their customers to purchase it. But Tesla's move is a bit different. The automaker announced plans to accept payments in Bitcoin, "subject to applicable laws and on a limited basis," CNBC reports. This is notable as few other companies are willing to accept payment in a currency that changes value on a minute-by-minute basis. Tesla also added in its filing that it "may or may not liquidate (Bitcoin payments) upon receipt," according to Reuters.

Essentially this policy means that Tesla, and by extension Elon Musk, are willing to risk losing revenues earned in Bitcoin in the belief that Bitcoin can actually hold onto its value over the long term.

A value that Musk himself has been crucial in driving up. While Correlation is not causality, Musk's pro-Bitcoin tweets do roughly correlate with Bitcoin's meteoric rise, which began in December of last year.

Perhaps most notably, Musk actively discussed transitioning Tesla to Bitcoin on his public Twitter (TWTR  ) feed with crypto evangelist and MicroStrategy (MSTR  ) CEO Michael Saylor.

Musk asked Saylor, "whether large transactions are possible?" referring to said transition. Saylor described Tesla's potential shift from dollars to BTC as a "$100 billion favor" to its shareholders. And it's likely many Tesla shareholders, who helped drive the stock up by 500% last year, are on board with Saylor's premise.

But the larger question is whether more down to earth, brick and mortar investors agree Tesla's thesis.

For one thing, Tesla's move into Bitcoin exposes those same shareholders to the volatile and the tempestuous crypto market. It's the sort of risk other major corporations aren't willing to take, at least not yet. But for the future of Bitcoin as a currency, further corporate backing is crucial.

Because at this point, Bitcoin is not a currency used for buying things, barring seedy purchases over the dark web. In fact, blockchain researcher Chainalysis found that only 1.3% of Bitcoin transactions were made between merchants and their customers, Bloomberg reports. But these same transactions are necessary for Bitcoin to transform into a real-world store of value rather than a speculative investment.

Tesla's move is just one point in an evolving argument about Bitcoin and its future. Tesla may be one of the world's most significant companies, but its value is primarily based on speculation. The same sort of speculation that lends Bitcoin its value. For Tesla's move to have significance, more storied corporations will have to follow suit.

But, "If this becomes a trend in corporate treasuries the downside of staying on the sidelines will only become costlier over time," Maya Zehavi, a blockchain consultant told Bloomberg.

Still despite Tesla's move one can still only speculate about Bitcoin's future as a real world currency.