Tesla Stock Tanks After Elon Musk Warns of Lofty Valuation [Opinion]

Musk’s Twitter account launched a tweetstorm in which he shared his opinion on a range of topics, including his own company’s share price, which sent investors fleeing for the exits.

His Twitter threads attracted thousands of responses from his followers, the consensus among which appears to be that his verified account was hacked. A security breach would be a less shocking explanation except for the fact that unlike his tech peers, Musk has been criticizing the COVID-19-fueled “house arrest” rules for days, calling it “fascist,” “not democratic” and “not freedom.” In his most recent all-holds barred rant, Musk went off on Tesla’s lofty valuation, America’s freedom and — in an Armageddon-type style — his own personal assets. If it’s true, he’s selling “almost all physical possessions” including real estate. Below is a snippet of of the series of tweets, all of which seemed to be published within minutes of each other.

Fool Me Once..

Tesla’s stock has been on a tear of late, gaining nearly 90% year-to-date before today’s meltdown, defying the odds and surprising even the most seasoned traders on Wall Street. Considering that much of his $36.5 billion net worth is tied to his company’s stock, it’s unclear why he would have a problem with it. [Forbes] He reportedly owns about 20% of the company’s stock. The stock price is a slippery slope that he has tread on before. In 2018, Musk tweeted that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420,” saying at the time, “funding secured.” That tweet caught the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with whom Musk eventually reached a settlement that included his promise that his tweets would be vetted by his legal team. [CNBC] It’s unclear where those lawyers were today. TSLA shares tanked quickly in response, as pointed out by analyst and economist Alex Kruger. At last check, TSLA stock has shed 9% today.

Others in the cryptocurrency community were quick to respond to Musk’s tweetstorm as well.

Crypto Twitter Response

Musk is popular within the cryptocurrency community, having impressed his followers with tweets about Dogecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin before. So far, he hasn’t mentioned cryptocurrencies today but the day is still young. Instead of questioning the tweetstorm, others simply encouraged Musk to keep it going, only this time tell us how he really feels about Bitcoin.

Since Musk is selling anyway, now would be the perfect time for the billionaire to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon. Musk could have gotten a lot more for his money if he had this breakdown a week ago.

Tron Founder Justin Sun had some words of advice for Musk, and surprisingly he didn’t use it as an opportunity to shill his own coin.

Whatever’s going on with Musk, we hope he hasn’t just gotten himself into a heap of more trouble with regulators. But he’s on his own with TSLA shareholders.