Breaking: Elon Musk Sells $3.95 B Tesla Shares, Stock Plummets

Tesla Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, has sold 19.5 million shares of Tesla. The filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that Musk has sold over $3.95 Billion. So far, Musk has not explained the reason for this sale. However, Tesla’s stock continues to struggle. It fell by 2.93% in the last 24 hours and fell a further 0.68% in the after-hours.

Why Is Elon Musk Selling Tesla Shares

Elon Musk is currently handling a smooth transition of power at the newly acquired Twitter. Musk initially offered to purchase Twitter at $44 billion. This equates to a price of $54.20 per share. However, Musk pulled out of the deal claiming that Twitter underreported its bots issue. Twitter sued Musk to force him to buy the company at the initial offer.

The last time Musk sold his Tesla shares, he was engaged in a legal battle with Twitter. He informed his followers that the sale was a preparation for an emergency scenario in case Twitter forces him to close the deal. He also stated that he will not sell his shares again for a long time.

Since then, Musk informed the Twitter board that he will acquire Twitter at the original price. He fired the CEO, CFO, and many senior executives along with the Twitter board. However, despite all-time high usage after the acquisition, the company may be struggling financially. Several major companies such as United Airlines, Pfizer, and Audi have pulled their advertisements from the platform.

Musk showed a significant shift in his tone regarding content moderation after the acquisition. He reiterated several times that the company has not made any changes to the moderation policies. The macroeconomic downturn may also be the reason behind the Tesla shares sale.

Will This Affect Crypto Holdings

Due to economic uncertainty, Tesla sold a lot of its Bitcoin holdings for cash. Musk and Tesla both hold a significant amount of crypto. With Musk selling Tesla shares, whether or not he offloads his crypto holding becomes a major issue.