Elon Musk sold $5 billion this Wednesday, according to SEC filings filed by the company, after he had sent Tesla stock on a wild ride in the weekend by promising to sell 10% of his stock, the equivalent of $21 billion, if his followers in twitter voted by a majority that he sell.
Tesla stock is down 13.5% over the last 5 days, taking hits on Monday and Tuesday as the market responded to Musk’s twitter hi-jinks.
Musk’s tweets referred specifically to legislative proposals that stock gains be taxed, even if the stocks are unsold. Since he does not receive a salary from Tesla he noted that the only way he could pay taxes was by selling his stock, leading to the twitter poll.
This turbulence is relatively small seen in the context of the astronomic rise in the company’s stock price starting in 2019 going from around $50 per share in October 2019 to over $1000 per share in October 2021.
The rise in Tesla stock has swelled Musk’s personal fortune from around $2 billion in 2012 to over $200 billion in 2021.
