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Elon Musk loses 2nd richest ranking after drop in Tesla shares, Bitcoin price

Dubai - Tesla may be considering or may have sold off its Bitcoin holdings, a Musk tweet has suggested

Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk has lost his spot as the world’s second-richest person due to a decline in electric vehicle maker’s shares and drop in Bitcoin’s price.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Musk’s assets were valued at $160.6 billion (b) on Monday following a 2.2 per cent drop in Tesla’s shares. The value of Musk’s assets has dropped by 24 per cent from its January peak.

Tesla's founder lost his second position to LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.

As of Monday, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos maintained his top position among the world’s richest people followed by Arnault, Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg.

The price of Bitcoin traded below $45,000 earlier this week after a tweet by Musk suggested Tesla may be considering or may have sold off its Bitcoin holdings.

Musk's tweet was in response to an unverified Twitter account called @CryptoWhale, which had claimed, "Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings. With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn't blame him…".

Musk replied "indeed" without specifying whether Tesla had sold off its Bitcoin holdings or that he simply agreed with the sentiment that he faced criticism.

On May 12, Musk said Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for car purchases, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency.

-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com