Tesla did not buy or sell any bitcoin in the three months ended September, leaving its holdings unchanged at 9,720 BTC.

Charger with Tesla logo at a Supercharger rapid battery charging station for the electric vehicle company Tesla Motors, in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View, California, August 24, 2016. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

Tesla's (TSLA) bitcoin (BTC) holdings held steady at 9,720 $BTC in the third quarter, the U.S.-based car manufacturer's new earnings report revealed Wednesday.

The quarterly report did not mention bitcoin, meaning the company did not buy or sell any BTC in the three months to September. The holding, worth $275.4 million at the current market price of $28,300, has remained unchanged for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Tesla, led by crypto propounder Elon Musk, invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in February 2021, 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 BTC in the first quarter of 2021 and liquidated 75% of the remaining balance at a hefty loss last year.

That said, Tesla still has the third largest bitcoin holdings for a public company, behind MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA).

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.

Oct 19, 2023 at 6:28 a.m.

By Omkar Godbole - Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team.