Tesla shares slide again after Musk's tweets on crypto

Shares of U.S. electric car maker Tesla are sliding after seeing substantial gains last year. The share price of Tesla began to plunge after Tesla CEO Elon Musk had made reckless comments on cryptocurrency.

At the New York Stock Exchange on Monday (local time), share of Tesla plunged 2.19% to close at $576.83. Shares of Tesla are losing their allure this year, down about 20%, after surging 740% last year.

Tesla shares are extending declines primarily because they are being adjusted out of concern for inflation in the U.S. economy. However, the downward spiral of Tesla stock was more pronounced than other big tech companies, including Facebook (-0.15%), Apple (-0.93%), and Amazon (+1.47%).

Experts on Wall Street suspect that a recent plunge in the shares of Tesla reflects the risks of its CEO. Musk, who touted Bitcoin early this year, said last week the company no longer plans to accept Bitcoin as payment, sending shock waves through the cryptocurrency market. In a tweet on Sunday, Musk implied that Tesla may sell the rest of its Bitcoin holdings. Such unpredictable comments and actions by the Tesla CEO gave an impression that Musk is untrustworthy and are also affecting corporate value.


Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com