Tesla's BTC Stash Reveals EV Maker's Diamond Hands On Crypto Holdings Despite Bear Market

Electric vehicle maker Tesla released its third-quarter earnings Wednesday, revealing that it has diamond hands on its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.

Contrary to the rumors that were circulating online a few months ago, Tesla suggested that it did not buy or sell any of its crypto assets over the three-month period ending in September. However, it did not explicitly state its actual Bitcoin holdings.

Tesla's report underlined that its BTC holdings, valued at $184 million, remained the same at the end of last month, which has been the situation for five consecutive quarters. This highlights Tesla's choice to use its diamond hands since 2022.

The term diamond hands is a crypto speak that refers to an individual or an institution holding a volatile investment despite pressure to sell.

Software developer MicroStrategy also chose to have diamond hands on its BTC holdings since it started accumulating the crypto asset a few years back. Because of this trait, MicroStrategy earned millions of dollars from its Bitcoin holdings, and used the profit to purchase more Bitcoin and pay off some of its debts.

While MicroStrategy remains the biggest private institution to hold Bitcoin, Tesla also has a significant amount of BTC in its stash.

Tesla, which is led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, started its Bitcoin accumulation in February 2021 and reported having purchased 43,000 BTC. In the same month, the American EV maker said it would start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for some Tesla merchandise.

But that plan did not materialize and Tesla, in the following months, sold 4,320 BTCs in the first quarter of 2021 and liquidated 75% of its remaining balance at a substantial loss in 2022.

So far, Tesla sits as the third-largest Bitcoin holder for a public company, with an estimated BTC holdings of 9,720 BTCs.

As of 4:45 a.m. ET on Thursday, BTC was trading at $28,357.52, with a 24-hour trading volume down by 25.51% at $11.02 billion. This represents a 0.68% decrease in the last 24 hours and a 5.8% gain over the past seven days.

Bitcoin's total circulating supply stands at 19.52 million BTCs, with its value down by 0.64%, to a $53.36 billion market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.