Tesla’s share price plunged by 12% on Tuesday as traders reacted with alarm to Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Tuesday’s bloodbath on Wall Street wiped $126 billion off the company’s valuation — and also caused Musk’s net worth to fall heavily.
It’s a sign that Tesla investors are unhappy about his plan — for two reasons.
There are fears that Musk would need to sell his shares in order to finance the deal to buy the social network.
And amid uncertainty over whether the world’s richest man would also become Twitter’s CEO, investors worry he could be spread too thin.
Musk is already CEO of Tesla and SpaceX — and is also the brainchild of two startups: The Boring Company and Neuralink.
Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA, has warned that Musk might not have the financing to complete the Twitter acquisition if Tesla’s share price continues to fall.
Not Just Tesla
Although Tesla was certainly one of Wall Street’s worst performers on Tuesday, it wasn’t alone.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged to its lowest level since December 2020 after suffering its biggest one-day drop in over 18 months.
Beyond the drama engulfing Tesla, other factors include a raft of new lockdown restrictions in China, and the ongoing battle to tackle inflation.
Bitcoin has been closely correlated to the stock market for some time — and also fell sharply.
Within the space of 12 hours, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency slid from $40,567 to lows of $37,884, CoinMarketCap data shows.
At the time of writing, BTC has recovered slightly — trading at $38,850 — but is failing to meaningfully break through $39,000.
This has subsequently cast a shadow over cryptocurrencies with a smaller market cap. Ether is down 4%, BNB by 2.2%, and Solana by 2%.