Elon Musk's Tesla Records $80 Million Paper Profit On Bitcoin In Q3, Keeps Holdings Intact

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) held on to its Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) for another quarter, reporting its second consecutive paper profit from cryptocurrency holdings.

Bitcoin Brings In Gains For Tesla In Q3

Tesla held $1.315 billion in digital assets as of Sept. 30, an increase of over 6% from the previous quarter, according to the company’s earnings report posted after the market close.

That said, the company’s paper profits from its cryptocurrency investments stood at only $80 million, marking a sharp decline from $284 million in the second quarter.

Tesla does not publish a breakdown of its cryptocurrency holdings. However, on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence reports that the entirety of its stockpile consists of Bitcoin. Its stash of 11,509 BTC remained unchanged from the last quarter.

Moreover, Bitcoin closed the third quarter up 6.31%, which is consistent with the growth of Tesla’s digital assets.

Tesla Likes HODLing Bitcoin?

Tesla’s Bitcoin journey began in January 2021, when it purchased $1.5 billion worth of the apex cryptocurrency.

The company had previously accepted Bitcoin as a payment option for vehicles before discontinuing the practice due to worries about the energy usage involved in Bitcoin mining.

The Elon Musk-led company reported a revenue beat in the third quarter compared to consensus estimates, but missed earnings expectations.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $2.97, up 3.85% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Shares of Tesla are trading down 3.18% in after-hours trading after closing up 0.82% at $438.97 during Wednesday’s regular trading session.

Benzinga’s proprietary Edge Rankings show Momentum as the strongest category for TSLA at 92.39/100. Want to see how it compares to other "Mag 7" stocks? Go to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings.