Elon Musk Loses $15B, Is No Longer “World’s Richest Person.”

Though 2021 has seemed like the year of Tesla Motors and Elon Musk, the mogul entrepreneur hit a speed bump today, as Tesla shares dropped by 8.6%. Elon Musk’s title of “world’s richest person” is now temporarily revoked; however, the title isn’t the worst blow today, as the 8.6% represented a whopping $15.2B loss for Elon Musk and Tesla. 

When the market closed, Tesla stock ($TSLA) stood at $714.50, a considerable decline from their opening at $762.64. 

The drop comes in part from a series of unintentionally negative comments from Elon Musk, namely around Bitcoin. Via Twitter, Elon Musk voiced concerns on Bitcoin, noting that the prices could be interpreted as high. Given that the announcement came just two weeks after Tesla’s wild $1.5B investment into the crypto, this probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say. 

Bitcoin fell from $58,000 to $52,000 after the tweet, putting Tesla in a challenging financial situation. 

To make matters worse, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen issued the following statement on Monday:

“To the extent, it is used I fear it’s (Bitcoin) often for illicit finance. It’s an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that’s consumed in processing those transactions is staggering.”

Aside from the Bitcoin debacle, analysts suspect that parts of Tesla’s decline can be attributed to Elon Musk-confirmed reports that their Model Y SUV will no longer be sold online. 

History now repeats itself as Jeff Bezos reclaims the title of the worlds richest person alive. As the CEO of Amazon, he boasts a net worth totally 189.3 billion dollars. 

Realistically, Tesla’s shareholders have no cause for any long-term worry, as the recent dip is easily mendable. If anything, it speaks to the immense power that Elon Musk holds and may incentivize more investors to put their faith in him.