Published 19:07 IST, February 23rd 2021
Elon Musk loses $15 bn in a day after Bitcoin warning, Bezos regains richest person title
The Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday lost more than $15 billion of net worth as electric car-maker company’s shares plunged 8.6 per cent over the weekend.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday lost more than $15 billion of net worth as electric car-maker company’s shares plunged 8.6 per cent over the weekend after he said that the prices of Bitcoin and the smaller rival Ether “do seem high”. Musk is no longer the world’s richest person, according to a Bloomberg report, as Tesla recorded its biggest decline since September 2020 fueled by billionaire’s remarks. His comments on Twitter came just two weeks after Tesla announced that it added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet.
The cryptocurrency surged over 400% in the past year but tumbled for a second day reportedly on Tuesday. At one instance, Bitcoin slipped below $50,000 on scepticism over the durability of its rally. After wiping off $15.2 billion from his net worth, Elon Musk is now the world’s second-richest person with a total net worth of $183.4 billion as of Tuesday, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, pushing Jeff Bezos to number one position with a total net worth of $186.3 billion.
Tesla CEO earlier on Monday also tweeted that the company’s Model Y Standard Range SUV would still be available “off the menu” while also backing up reports from electric car maker’s news site Electrk that the model had been scrapped from its online configurator. Among the world’s 500 richest person list, Musk dropped to the second number after his wealth peaked in January with a net worth of $210 billion. Amazon founder has reclaimed the top spot even though reportedly his fortune fell by $3.7billion on Monday.
Bezos-Musk have been swapping places
As per the report, since January both billionaires, Musk and Bezos have been swapping places as the Tesla value fluctuated. At the start of 2021, the Tesla stocks surged as much as 25% before wiping off almost all of its profits. Musk had even briefly overtaken Bezos after his rocket company SpaceX raised $850 million earlier this month and valued the company at $74 billion which was also a 60% jump from August. Prior to January, Amazon founder had occupied the top post reportedly for three straight years. After which, Musk eclipse the e-commerce titan owing to a 794% rally in Tesla shares.
19:10 IST, February 23rd 2021