Elon Musk's Tesla Didn't Buy or Sell Any Bitcoin During the Third Quarter

Tesla's (TSLA) bitcoin [BTC] holdings held steady in the third quarter, the U.S.-based car manufacturer’s new earnings report revealed Wednesday.

The quarterly report did not mention bitcoin implying that the firm did not buy or sell any bitcoin in the three months ended September. The holding was valued at $184 million at the end of the third quarter and has remained unchanged for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Tesla still has the third-largest bitcoin holdings for a publicly traded company, estimated at 9,720 bitcoin, according to bitcointreasury.net. Its holding is only overshadowed by the BTC that Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy (MSTR) and bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) own.

The firm, led by Elon Musk, invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in February 2021, reportedly accumulating around 43,000 tokens. In the same month, Tesla said it would begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.

The company, however, walked back on its intentions in the subsequent months. It sold 4,320 bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021 and liquidated 75% of the remaining balance at a hefty loss last year.

Tesla reported a net income of $1.85 billion for the July-September quarter, registering a 44 percent decline from a year earlier, with earnings per share falling to 53 cents from 95 cents.

Shares of Tesla were down 4.78% at $242.68 on Wednesday.

UPDATE (Oct. 19, 07:34 UTC): Updates headline and story to remove reference to the number of bitcoin held. Adds share movement in the last graph.